Govt working on draft resolution on Lokpal issue

Government is working on a draft of a resolution to be adopted by both houses of Parliament today in a bid to break the logjam on the Lokpal issue so that Anna Hazare could end his 12-day-old fast.

Hectic discussions within government and between government and opposition parties were on to finalise the resolution that could be taken up at the end of the discussion in both the Houses for adoption.

Finance Minister and Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee had a meeting with BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and is understood to have discussed the contents of the resolution.

Mukherjee also met senior ministerial colleagues including Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal. He is also expected to have consultation with government allies and leaders of other parties.

The finance minister is also expected to meet Team Anna members including Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal.

Sources said the resolution is expected to make a reference to three issues raked up by Anna Hazare -- coverage of entire lower bureaucracy under Lokpal, passage of a bill on creation of Lok Ayuktas in states and citizens charter for redressal of grievances.

The resolution would recommend that these issues be considered by the Standing Committee before which already the official bill introduced by the government and the Jan Lokpal bill have been referred for in-depth consideration.

Hazare had demanded that the Parliament should accept the three key demands of the civil society for him to end the fast.

A senior law ministry official at the level of additional secretary was called to the meeting of ministers where the resolution was being vetted.

Sources said Jaitley told Mukherjee that it may not be Constitutionally possible for Parliament to enact a law creating Lokayuktas in states. At best Parliament can make an enabling provision in this regard.

Senior Minister Farooq Abdullah of National Conference and Sharad Pawar of NCP also joined discussions with Mukherjee.