‘Lokayukta bill can be tabled in House if Opposition cooperates’
GAIRSAIN (Chamoli) :The much awaited Lokayukta bill will be tabled in the upcoming Winter Session of the Uttarakhand assembly if the Opposition cooperates with the government, BJP state president Ajay Bhatt said on Wednesday.
The Winter Session begins Thursday at Garsain.
A seven-member select committee that was constituted in April recommended 42 amendments in the bill including to the provision that states the Lokayukta can suo moto take cognizance of a corruption case.
“The select committee has gone through the bill… The government is ready to table the bill on the floor of the House but for this, the opposition has to cooperate in running the House smoothly,” Bhatt said in Dehradun.
He asserted the BJP was positive on making Gairsain the summer capital.
In a RTI reply to social activist Nadimuddim, the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat said the select committee submitted its report in June. As per the report, the panel is against giving powers to the Lokayukta of suo moto taking cognizance of any graft case.
It recommended amending a provision from the original draft bill that says the Lokayukta could prosecute and sent a person to six-month imprisonment for publishing or airing the proceedings of an ongoing case. The committee also recommended that without any condition, the chief minister and his cabinet will be under the ambit of Lokayukta.
The RTI reply stated the draft bill has a provision to get nod from a bench comprising the speaker of the house and other members for prosecuting the chief minister, or a former chief minister. The panel was of the opinion that the bill should bring every member of the legislative assembly under its ambit.
Leader of the opposition Indira Hridayesh has said that though the opposition has limited numbers in the House but it doesn’t mean that “the genuine issues” won’t be raised. In the 70-member assembly, the BJP has 56 excluding the Speaker, the Congress 11 and two are independents. Hridayesh said the government has arbitrarily has taken a decision to extend the limit of the municipalities which was being opposed spontaneously by the people.