The Government has agreed to civil society's plea to audio-tape the talks and hold public consultations on the draft Lokpal Bill.
This emerged at the first meeting of the 10-member joint drafting committee for the anti-graft Bill that met here on Saturday. It was agreed that the recordings would be made public as and when such a decision was taken. The government-civil society meeting was jointly chaired by Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, and senior advocate Mr Shanti Bhushan.
Emerging from the meeting, the Union Human Resource Development Minister Mr Kapil Sibal told newspersons that the next meeting would be held on May 2.
Historic meet
“It has been an extremely historic event… and we hope to arrive at a consensus, and through the consensus a very strong Lokpal Bill will come, which will purge corruption,” he said.
Mr Sibal said the panel would discuss the draft provided by the activists along with the one cleared by the Standing Committee.
“We agreed that we should have a strong Lokpal Bill, which should be introduced in the Monsoon Session (Parliament). As far as procedure is concerned, we will be deciding on it in the next meeting,” he said.
The panel was formed last week following a five-day fast unto death by social activist Mr Anna Hazare.
Mr Hazare, too, said that the meeting went off well. “It is because of you that we achieved this success,” he told the media.
Later, Mr Prashant Bhushan, another civil society panel member, said that all organisations concerned would be consulted as part of the public discourse through websites and regional consultations. The actual modalities would be decided in the next meeting, he added.