Lokpal Bill likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Dec 19: Sources

  The government is prearing to begin a debate in Parliament on the Lokpal Bill on the 19th december. 

Anna , who is 74, has threatened to start  a hunger strike on December 27 if the government does not deliver a potent new law against graft this month.     
A parliamentary standing committee examining the Lokpal Bill has finalized its draft amidst dissent from members, including three Congress MPs. The report, which is not binding on the government, is likely to be tabled in Parliament on Friday. Rejecting the parliamentary panel's draft, Anna said the government is not serious about fighting corruption.( click here to see why team anna is upset by  standing committee's draft)

As per Sources  the government is heading towards accepting some of the key points that Anna has deemed essential for fighting corruption. The Prime Minister may be covered by the Lokpal Bill, though with safeguards; government sources say the Prime Minister may himself offer in Parliament that his office should be included in the Lokpal Bill. The government may also agree that 57 lakh junior bureaucrats will be accountable to the nine-member Lokpal. For now, what remains unresolved is the matter of who the CBI will report to - the government is not keen to change the investigating agency's current reporting structure. If that doesn't happen, Team Anna says, the CBI will remain vulnerable to political pressure. "I think the recommendations of the (Parliamentary) Standing Committee, whatever they are, the Lokpal which is coming, I don't think this will have any impact on corruption. On the contrary, it is likely to dismantle whatever exists in the name of anti-corruption in this country," said Arvind Kejriwal

•  Junior bureaucrats 
  One of Anna's non-negotiable demands is that the Lokpal Bill include junior bureaucrats - a feature the committee has not sanctioned.  Meenakshi Natrajan, Deepa Das Munsi and PT Thomas, all Congress members of the committee - formally registered their protest against Group C central government employees - who add upto 57 lakhs  -  not being brought under the Lokpal's ambit. The standing committee suggests the nine members of the Lokpal cannot manage this huge group. Instead, it recommends Group C employees should be investigated by the other autonomous anti-corruption body, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

• PM inclusion
  On the matter of whether the Lokpal should have the right to investigate the Prime Minister, the committee says it leaves the decision to Parliament because of differing opinions among its members.  

• CBI
  The standing committee recommends that the CBI seek the approval of the Lokpal both for chargesheets and for its closure or final reports on investigations. The CBI has taken strong exception to this on the grounds that it contradicts the objective of making the CBI autonomous. A statement from the agency said, "This provision goes against the stated objectives of making investigation agency autonomous, not answerable or liable to be monitored by either the administrative ministry or the Lokpal and protect the integrity of investigation."

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