Cabinet to discuss Lokpal Bill Monday

While Anna Hazare continued to drum up support for the anti-corruption ombudsman legislation and target the government, the union cabinet is not discussing the Lokpal Bill on Sunday as promised by the Prime Minister and deferred it for deliberations on Monday.

The bill is not yet ready for cabinet discussions and some issues were to be sorted out, media reports quoting Congress sources said.

The Food Security Bill instead is being discussed in the cabinet on Sunday.

On Saturday the PM had assured to discuss the bill with the cabinet colleagues on Sunday and then table it in Parliament on Monday.

The Union Cabinet will inspect the various recommendations that has been made by the civil society and the opposition parties on the bill.

The PM said he was determined to place the bill for passage in this session of the house ending on Dec 22.

On his way back to India from Russia, the PM said on board the special flight: "We will make every effort to pass the bill in this session. We are working day and night to give shape to the bill."

The PM said the bill would be cleared by the cabinet Sunday, and then it will be presented in Parliament for the lawmakers to take a call where he said "we don´t know what could happen."

He said no one should doubt the sincerity of the government on the passage of the Lokpal Bill.

"Bring the Lokpal Bill or go," Anna, who was in Bangalore Saturday, thundered.

Anna Hazare is in Chennai Sunday along with key colleagues Kiran Bedi and Santosh Hegde.

Anna said if the Lokpal Bill was in place, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram would have been in jail (over the 2G scam).

Upping the ante, Anna Hazare in a letter to the government (PM) said that the Lokpal Bill draft prepared by the government is not ´strong´ and maintained that excluding Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the ambit of the new ombudsman agency will make it ´toothless´.

The self-styled Gandhian wrote that both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have misused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

He has also raised doubts over the selection process of the Lokpal as suggested by the Standing Committee in their draft.

Hazare threatened to start his proposed fast and ´jail bharo andolan´ (fill the jail) movement if the government fails to pass a strong Lokpal Bill in the winter session.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is likely to introduce the Lokpal Bill in the Parliament on Dec 20 with certain amendments in it, media reports.

Anna has threatened another indefinite fast from Dec 27 if a strong Lokpal Bill was not passed in the winter session of Parliament.

The winter session of the Parliament will be over on Dec 23.