Updates from the meeting of 30th May of the joint committee

    

       Today’s meeting was quite disastrous. It started with Anna demanding more frequent meetings as the progress had been quite slow till now. Anna also said that the government had been postponing discussions on even simple issues so far. At this rate, the meetings would continue indefinitely.

Broadly, the government disagreed on almost everything:

1. Government said – “Prime Minister should not be covered under Lokpal.” We were shocked to hear that because in the draft bill prepared by the government in January this year, PM was covered, though with some exceptions. Today, they wanted PM to be completely out of Lokpal’s investigations. This was shocking for us. They said that if any enquiry starts against the PM, the PM would lose all authority to govern and take decisions. Prashant Bhushan reminded that in Bofors case also, the then PM was under scanner. But that did not deter him from taking decisions. Mr Chidambaram said that the PM’s position would be weakened if there were allegations against him every other day. He was reminded that an unsubstantiated complaint would not be entertained. A seven member bench of Lokpal would first hear that complaint and decide whether there was an adequate prima facie evidence against the PM. If there were none, the complaint would be dismissed. However, government did not agree.
   
   
2. Government said – “Judiciary would be out of Lokpal.” We reminded them that all that we were asking for was power to a seven member bench of Lokpal to decide whether an FIR should be registered against a judge or not. Today, only Chief Justice of India has the power to give that permission. And despite so much evidence against so many judges in public domain, permission had been given only in one case in the last 20 years. In the meeting held on 7^th May, Prashant Bhushan had even told Mr Chidambaram how Mr Chidambaram himself had sought permission to register FIR against Justice Sen Gupta of Kolkatta High Court. Permission was sought from the then Chief Justice of India, Justice Venkatachaliah, who is very well known for his integrity. However, even Justice Venkatachaliah did not give permission. Was the evidence against Justice Sen Gupta strong enough? The strength of the evidence can be gauged from the fact that Justice Sen Gupta was raided and arrested soon after he retired because after retirement, permission of CJI was not required.
   
   
3. However, the government did not agree saying it would compromise the independence of judiciary. We said that the independence of judiciary was compromised under the present system which was encouraging corruption. Government said that judiciary should be dealt under Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, which was pending in Parliament. We told them that the said Bill was very bad and would end up protecting corrupt judges rather than punishing them. Also, interestingly, the said Bill does not even talk of punishing and prosecuting “corruption” of judges. It only talks of enquiring against their “Misbehaviour”. The government said that they would include corruption also in the said bill. Then we said, if you want to include judiciary’s corruption in that bill, let this committee decide on drafting that Bill also. To that they refused. They said – you give your suggestions and we will recommend them to the Standing committee. This means that the government wants to include judiciary in a weak and ineffective Bill and does not want their corruption to be dealt through a strong and effective mechanism.
   
   
4. MPs bribery inside Parliament will not be covered – If a MP takes bribe to vote or ask questions in Parliament, which would not be covered under Lokpal. Only his conduct outside will be covered. What does an MP do outside Parliament? Just recommend projects out of his Constituency fund. There too, he merely recommends and the project is executed by the officers. Therefore, effectively, all MPs would be outside the purview of Lokpal. Purchase and sale of MPs is endangering the very foundations of our democracy. They may be purchased not just by other parties but could be purchased by other countries or corporates. Therefore, in order to save our democracy, it is extremely important that this is covered under Lokpal. However, the Government said that the Parliament should be allowed to do “self regulation”. We told them that this self regulation had not worked and their corruption should be investigated by some independent body. They simply refused.
   
   
5. All officers will not be covered under Lokpal : Only Joint Secretary and above will be covered. Who will deal with corruption at levels below that? They said that the existing system would continue. But the existing system was not working. They had no answers. We said that the common man wants an answer to corruption in his day to day life – bad roads, corruption in PDS etc. Who will deal with it? We said that the whole country had risen against corruption to seek solutions to corruption at all levels.
   
   
6. CBI, CVC and departmental vigilance will not be merged in Lokpal: Government said that let all these agencies continue. Let Lokpal have its own machinery. But why does the government want to keep a CBI under its own control? It appears that the Prime Minister does not want to be investigated by an independent body but will get himself investigated by CBI, which is directly under his own control. Also, CBI has been misused by every successive government to arm twist politically inconvenient opponents. Government perhaps wants to continue doing that.
   
   
7. Public Grievances: Government agreed to the concept of citizens charter and that violation of citizens charter would be deemed to be corruption at some stage of upscaling of a grievance.

         

         Justice Santosh Hegde asked the government – “Then who is covered under Lokpal? And what is the purpose of creating such a Lokpal?”

        Effectively, the Lokpal would have jurisdiction only on Joint Secretary and above officers but not on the PM. There would be around 2000 such odd officers in Government of India. Are we creating Lokpal for investigating corruption of such a few officers? Was this the purpose of such a big anti-corruption movement in India?

      
     Definitely government’s intentions are suspect. Please prepare yourself for the next huge movement in the country. We will go to the next few meetings. We will try our best, till the last moment, to persuade the government to agree to a strong and effective Lokpal Bill. But if the government disagrees, we should be ready to take to the streets.

Guwahati Meeting Videos of 20 May, 2011

If you haven’t please take a look to see first hand the enthusiasm and support for the IAC movement in Guwahati.

• Anna Hazare

• Kiran Bedi

• Swami Agnivesh

• Arvind Kejriwal

• Manish Sissodia
  

Updates from the meeting of 23rd May of the joint committee

Updates from the 23rd may meeting of the joint committee.

ISSUE	Government’s response/decision
Powers of contempt to get its orders implemented and power to summon	Government agreed
It shall have the powers to recommend, on an annual basis, the number of special courts required under section 4 of Prevention of Corruption Act, to ensure that the trial in any case is completed in less than a year. The recommendations shall be binding on the government.	Government agreed that Lokpal may recommend but recommendation should lack of infrastructure. We said that we could examine how to overcome these issues but we would not agree to making it advisory. not be binding. We asked them why it could not be made binding? We were told that it was due to three reasons: because Parliament may or may not agree to sanction expenditure, High Courts may not appoint judges and there could be
Notify list of moveable and immoveable assets of accused, if during or at the time of conclusion of investigations, Lokpal believes that prosecution is likely to be initiated. These assets cannot be transferred after such notification. Loss to exchequer quantified at the time of conviction, could be recovered from sale of these assets.	Government agreed. But at what point should notification be issued, this would be decided after studying Bihar Special Courts Act. Also, some principles may be laid down on how the loss would be assessed by the court.
Recommend stay of any activity, if during investigations, Lokpal is satisfied that the allegations against such activity are likely to be sustained. If Government does not accept it within 30 days, Lokpal may get a stay order from HC against that activity.	In principle, government agreed. However, this needs to be appropriately formulated.
Direct transfer of any official, if his continuance is likely to adversely affect investigations.	Government agreed to make this power advisory. However, we are in favor of making it binding.
Powers to issue appropriate directions to prevent destruction of records during investigations, or to prevent the public servant from secreting the assets allegedly acquired by him through corrupt means.	Agreed
If the allegations against any minister are substantiated after any enquiry or investigations, then for non-criminal misconduct, Lokpal would submit its report to the President with its recommendations.	Agreed
Lokpal shall have powers to delegate any of its powers and functions barring those which are specifically to be performed by the benches of Lokpal.	There was a long discussion on this issue. Government’s vision of Lokpal is an 11 member body, which will have quasi judicial powers and that body will pass all orders. That is very different from our vision. Such a model would create problems as that would overburden Lokpal with immense workload and make Lokpal unwieldy. Our vision of Lokpal – an institution headed by 11 member body. This body would have quasi judicial powers but primarily be a supervisory body. There will be many officers under that body, who would be designated authorities under this Act and would themselves also have quasi judicial powers under this Act. Government would examine it and revert.
Every complaint shall have to be compulsorily disposed by Lokpal. No case is closed, all records related thereto shall be made public. complaint could be disposed without giving an opportunity of being hear to the complainant. If any	Agreed
There shall be complete transparency during investigations also. However, such records, which could impede the process of investigations, would not be disclosed. But after the completion of any investigation or enquiry, all records related to a case, shall be made public.	Agreed
Lokpal shall publish, every month on its website, the status of cases, received, disposed, closed, reasons for closure and list of cases pending.	Agreed
Any complaint against a staff of Lokpal shall be enquired into within a month of its receipt and if found correct, the staff shall be summarily dismissed from the job. If any criminal case is made out, the same shall be pursued.	Agreed.
The minimum punishment shall be raised to one year of rigorous imprisonment and maximum should be raised to life imprisonment.	No agreement on life imprisonment
Punishment shall be higher if the status or rank of accused is higher.	No agreement
Lokpal shall be responsible for providing protection against professional or physical threat or victimization to whistleblowers, victims of corruption and witnesses whether within or outside the government.	Agreed in principle that Lokpal should be nodal agency. However, it would be examined at what stage is the pending whistleblower Bill of the government. It would be examined whether whistleblower protection should be provided in this Act or in the other Act. If it is provided in the other Act, that Act would also be discussed and finalized by this committee only.
If any asset is subsequently found to be owned by a public servant, which was not declared, it would be deemed to have been obtained through corrupt means unless he proves otherwise.	Agreed
If any asset is subsequently found to be in possession of any public servant, it shall be deemed to be owned by him/her unless he proves otherwise.	Agreed
After each elections, the Lokpal shall verify the assets declared by each candidate with his declared sources of income in his tax returns. Those undeclared shall be investigated against.	Only elected representatives and not all candidates. Agreed.
No rules shall be made without the approval of Lokpal. Lokpal shall have power to make rules and regulations with respect to its own functioning.	Agreed
All records of Lokpal shall be open barring the following: 1. Such portions of any records which if released during any ongoing investigations, could impede the process of investigations. However, after completion of investigations, they would be disclosed. 2. Such records which could affect national security or 3. Such records which would disclose the identity of a whistleblower and could compromise his/her security.	Agreed
If anyone makes a complaint which lacks any evidence or basis and is held by Lokpal to be meant only to harass someone, the complainant shall be fined. However, merely closure of a case due to lack of evidence shall not be held against a complainant.	Agreed

On the rest of the points, brief discussions took place, and the issue were postponed for further examination.

Whose India is it anyway?

Sharing with you a "short" list of schemes launched/ initiated by Congress Party of India from 1952 using Tax Payers money.

One family is closely attached to Government schemes and projects; universities and educational institutions; ports and airports; National parks and sanctuaries; sports tournaments, trophies and stadia; hospitals and medical institutions; national scientific and research institutions; University chairs, scholarships and fellowships; festivals; roads and buildings - you name it and they have it... Surprisingly, the list includes most of the projects, schemes and institutions funded by the Union Government and the various Governments in the States. There might have few more schemes missing in the list here but this should give you an understanding of how India's first family has penetrated to unimaginable levels in this country where large section of the population is MUCH below poverty line even on this day.

In a planned and systematic effort to gain unfair advantage over other political parties, the Congress party, by using members of the Nehru-Gandhi family icons - Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru disturbed the level playing field in the electoral arena in last 50 years..

Over last 18 years, on a rough estimate, about 450 Central and State Government programmes, projects and national and State-level institutions involving public expenditure of hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees have been named after these three individuals. The list is pretty shocking to me, realising how taxpayers hard-earned money went thru these "leakages" (it is not just any other list, but leakholes in Govt of India) all these years..

Central:

1 Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana;

2 Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission;

3 Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme for the Children of Work ing Mothers, Dept of Women & Child Development

4. Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana;

5 Indira Awas Yojana;

6 Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme;

7 Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission

8 Jawaharlal Nehru Rojgar Yojna;

9.Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojna;

10 Indira Gandhi Canal Project, Funded by World Bank

11.Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana

State schemes:

1 Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package for Tsunami Affected Areas;

2.Rajiv Gandhi Social Security Scheme, Govt. of Puducherry;

3 Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojna;

4 Rajiv Gandhi Prathamik Shiksha Mission, Raigarh;

5 Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Madhya Pradesh;

6 Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Food Security , Madhya Pradesh;

7. Rajiv Gandhi Mission on Community Health, Madhya Pradesh;

8 Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corp;

9 Rajiv Gandhi Tourism Development Mission, Rajasthan;

10 Rajiv Gandhi Computer Literacy Programme, Assam

11 Rajiv Gandhi Swavlamban Rojgar Yojana, Govt. of NCT of Delhi

12.Rajiv Gandhi Mobile Aids Counseling and Testing Services, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

13.Rajiv Gandhi Vidyarthi Suraksha Yojana, Maharashtra;

14 Rajiv Gandhi Mission for Water Shed Management, M.P;

15Rajiv Gandhi Food Security Mission for Tribal Areas, MP;

16.Rajiv Gandhi Home for Handicapped, Pondicherry;

17 Rajiv Gandhi Breakfast Scheme, Pondicherry;

18 Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Divas, Punjab;

19 Rajiv Gandhi Artisans Health & Life Insurance Scheme, Tamil Nadu;

20 Rajiv Gandhi Zopadpatti and Nivara Prakalpa, Mumbai;

21 Rajiv Arogya Sri programme, Gujrat State Govt. Scheme;

22 Rajiv Gandhi Abhyudaya Yojana, AP;

23 Rajiv Gandhi Computer Saksharta Mission, Jabalpur

24 Rajiv Gandhi Bridges and Roads Infrastructure Development Programme;

25 Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Niwara Prakalp, Maharashtra Govt

26 Indira Gandhi Utkrishtha Chhattervritti Yojna , HP;

27 Indira Gandhi Women Protection Scheme, Maharashtra Govt;

28.Indira Gandhi Prathisthan, Housing and Urban Planning Department, UP Govt;

29.Indira Kranthi Patham Scheme, Andhra Pradesh;

30 Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, State Govt. Scheme;

31 Indira Gandhi Vruddha Bhumiheen Shetmajoor Anudan Yojana, Govt. of Maharashtra;

32.Indira Gandhi Nahar Project, Jaisalmer, Govt. of Rajasthan;

33.Indira Gandhi Niradhar Yojna, Govt. of Maharashtra;

34 Indira Gandhi kuppam, State Govt. Welfare Scheme for Tsunami affected fishermen;

35 Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Scheme-2006, Haryana Govt;

36.Indira Gandhi Niradhar Old, Landless, Destitute women farm labour Scheme, Maharashtra Govt;

37.Indira Gandhi Women Protection Scheme , Maharashtra Govt;

38.Indira Gaon Ganga Yojana, Chattisgarh;

39 Indira Sahara Yojana , Chattisgarh;

40 Indira Soochna Shakti Yojana, Chattisgarh;

41 Indira Gandhi Balika Suraksha Yojana , HP;

42 Indira Gandhi Garibi Hatao Yojana (DPIP), MP;

43 Indira Gandhi super thermal power project , Haryana Govt;

44 Indira Gandhi Water Project, Haryana Govt;

45.Indira Gandhi Sagar Project, Bhandara District Gosikhurd Maharashtra;

46 Indira Jeevitha Bima Pathakam, AP Govt;

47 Indira Gandhi Priyadarshani Vivah Shagun Yojana, Haryana Govt;

48 Indira Mahila Yojana Scheme, Meghalaya Govt;

49.Indira Gandhi Calf Rearing Scheme, Chhattisgarh Govt;

50.Indira Gandhi Calf Rearing Scheme;

Where this country should have been today with such micro-level planning and massive funds allocated from the time this was declared as a 'Republic' state.. And where have we arrived today trusting our elected Govt's all these years; We followed our elected Govt's unambiguously, be it NDA or UPA or CPI, isn't it? I have nothing against Congress Party of India, but definitely I object the way 100ds of those Congressmen, their near & dear one's and also their allied partners made millions of Rupee's protected by "Congress ka Hath" in last 50 years.

You and me must decide where we want to take this country to? The time is NOW for that decisive actions on ground.. Let us support 'JanLokpal Bill'; Let us stand in solidarity with Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare & Swami Ramdeo; Let us offer our true condolences to late Rajiv Dixit by uniting millions in our fight against corruption.

Yogesh Pagar

(Above list is sent by London based economist who wish to remain anonymous)

HOW TO STOP CORRUPTION !

  How do we reduce corruption in the government by incentive government employees?

  Interesting idea. But the methodology has to be carefully thought out. We have the culture of corruption. We simply have to monetize it.

  USA is also corrupt?  Not to this extent. Imagine a traffic cop in India with the powers that the cop in the USA has. There if you get a ticket your insurance shoots up. Yet how many cops accept a bribe and let you go? Hardly any. Here it would be 90% with that kind of power ! Insurance rates in India don't even change with tickets received yet cops are so corrupt

  So tackling corruption should be a multiprocessing approach

Step 1) Increase emoluments of government workers like cops and judges etc. Make it so attractive that losing the job is bad news

Step 2) The above can be done thru a system of incentives.

1) Make a percentage payable to the concerned department for every project that is completed on time and within budget. This money will be distributed among those in that office. (This will prevent the wrong contractor being given the job for monetary considerations)

2) Give judges an incentive for each case that is settled within the allotted time

3) Give cops an incentive per 100 FIRs lodged and a bonus for each year where there is less than 1% cases that have not been solved. The bonus is given to that police station where the distinction has been achieved (so there is an incentive both to lodge FIRs and to solve cases). Every Police station has to try its best to meet both criteria

  Now there will still be some Policemen or other government employees who will want more owing to their power and greed.

  So a 'whistle blower' program has to be initiated.

Anyone reporting corruption will be rewarded and the people from that department itself will come forward since they lose a lot  of incentives if one of them is corrupt. Incentives are reduced for departments where corruption has been discovered and not reported by the employees themselves.

 A mandatory five years imprisonment is compulsory for any corrupt worker (apart from seizure of all earnings since inception)

So if more roads are built by the Road Construction department on time and within budget- incentives will accrue to that government department

  Similarly more power plants, airports and ports created, cases solved, crime reduced - more the concerned department earns through incentives. Since these projects have huge values the amount given to the government employees also will be substantial.

  If rules are bypassed the new 'efficient' courts and Police will take over and corruption will be uncovered or 'assumed' to the detriment of that department.

Anonymous websites will enable 'Whistle Blowers' to reveal the corruption of their colleagues secretly. Anti Corruption squads (ACB's) will jump into action to investigate. ACB's will be rated on the number of successful cases handled per year and will be extremely high paid individuals so that their honesty is unquestionable

  This will slowly result in the near elimination of corruption from government. Once this occurs the best people will be attracted to this profession. We will have a new breed of government employees who will be professional and ambitious and efficient.

  Political appointments will cease since  transfers and appointments will be removed from the ambit of politicians.

Without corruption black money will be reduced in the country. Tax collections will surge.

  Politicians will be given a percentage of all incentives given to government employees for election funding. So they will approve more projects. But if they approve useless projects they will lose elections since goonda power will be impossible with the new 'efficient' and independent police.

So the politicians will be careful.

Loans will be forthcoming from anywhere in the world due to the new efficiency of the government. Hence a new breed of honest politicians will emerge.

With the new effective 'delivery' system (owing to better policing and better government services) subsidies can be removed and replaced by discount coupons redeemable in any store. The savings to the nation will be substantial. Even after paying the politicians incentives for election funding the taxes can be reduced.  This is because of the huge reduction in black money supply and the corresponding increase in tax collections.

 The increase in tax collections will more than pay for the increase in payments to government servants thru the incentive system

  The education system also can be rejuvenated thru the incentive system. The greater the number of kids who pass thru the school system the greater the incentives. However the incentives will not be paid if the kids do not pass a simple exam given to all kids.

 This way a public- private partnership can be created which will give companies which 'adopt' schools tax benefits for the number of students who go on to college from their 'adopted' schools.

  This way we can incentive our government and make it a very lucrative and paying job. And make our government more efficient. We can also remove black money and increase tax collections this way. Politicians will be less likely to be corrupt since their election funding is taken care of. They are less likely to use goondas to win elections since the police will not support them anymore. Politicians will focus on thinking of better projects to win elections

But beware those who remain 'corrupt'.

Jail, humiliation and poverty awaits

Imagine a more efficient government and a less corrupt India !

We can do it and become a world superpower !

- Submitted by Onkar Yelurkar  with inputs from Santosh Samuel