Lokpal might be discussed in Budget Session(Cycle repeats!)

According to the sources key legislations like strengthening of anti-rape laws, Land Acquisition Bill and Lokpal Bill which are likely to be passed in Budged session might get delayed again!
with some Opposition parties objecting to the present form of the proposed measures.|Oh FOR GOD'S SAKE, they are already DEEEEEEEEEEEEELAYED..|
There are  differences on the Lokpal Bill despite the measure going through a standing committee and a select committee with some political parties opposing it today and wanted it to go through some more scrutiny.(click here to see amended version clear by Cabinet)

According to Nath, an MP for over 30 years Women's Reservation bill and Lokpal bill might be passed during the tenure of the 15th Lok Sabha. 

An interesting point to be noted is that even if the Lokpal Bill is passed in Rajya Sabha, it will have to go to lok Sabha again for confirmation as the version to be cleared is an amended one!

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/antirape-laws-to-lokpal-parl-session-to-be-stormy/1076537/1

Arvind Kejriwal accuses Delhi Jal Board of running fake project

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday accused the Delhi Jal Board of connivance in corruption through its projects commissioned to two foreign firms, Degremont and Veolia. The party demanded an independent probe into the matter.

Allegations 

• Arvind Kejriwal said, "The government has awarded a project worth Rs.516 crore to Degremont to reduce the non revenue water (NRW) in Malviya Nagar, but there is no NRW. This is a fake project and this burden will fall on the consumers(/Common Man) in the end."
• He alleged that the government has given a contract to Veolia in Nangloi for treatment and distribution of water and collection of bills at Rs.14.99 per kl, while DJB is doing the same work for Rs.2.90. This will turn into a Rs.5,000 crore scandal. In the last decade, corruption to the tune of Rs.10,000 crore happened in the DJB,
• Kejriwal said the documents with him show that DJB has inflated production figures (showed False increase in the quantity of water)  in the Sonia Vihar plant commissioned to Degremont in 2006.
  The documents of the Uttar Pradesh government, which is responsible for supplying water to the plant, show a mismatch between the water supplied to the plant and water produced after treatment.
• Kejriwal said Degremont and Veolia had been blacklisted by many countries because of corruption and inflation in water prices.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/arvind-kejriwal-delhi-jal-board-fake-project-foreign-firms/1/250567.html

Amendments by CM of Goa meant to protect the corrupt: Arvind Kejriwal

 Arvind Kejriwal during a video link conference in Delhi Today criticized Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar for amending the Goa Lokayukta Act saying that amendments are meant for protection of corrupts.
 This amendment provides a steep fine between 1 and 10 lakh for frivolous complaints, Kejriwal said the threat of fine and jail was unacceptable as it was clearly against the CrPC which makes it the duty of citizens to point out corruption.

 "There isn't any greater effort to protect the corrupt. It appears the government is going out of its way to protect the corrupt."Said Kejrival
 He added that this was the first time in India that a deemed rejected clause has been introduced in a Lokayukta law as usually the Lokayukta's report is deemed to be accepted.

Source:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-09/goa/37006858_1_corrupt-people-goa-lokayukta-act-lokayukta-law

Anna's Jantantra Morcha met in delhi(first Meet)

On Feb 6(2013) Nearly 40 volunteers of Anna Hazare's recently launched non-political outfit Jantantra Morcha(Click here to know more) met in New Delhi.
This meeting was the first one presided over by Sunita Godara who is a former Indian marathon runner and member of Hazare's coordination committee.
At the three-hour meeting, volunteers discussed their next course of action to strengthen the movement.

Source:http://ibnlive.in.com/news/anna-hazares-jantantra-morcha-meets-in-delhi/371307-37-64.html

Coalgate scam protests: Arvind Kejriwal and team appeared before Delhi court .

Crowd of supporters outside Patila House court

 Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and other members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today(4 Feb,2013) appeared before Delhi Court(or Patiala House court)  for their alleged involvement in rioting cases and 'Gherao'(surfacing) of PM's residence here last year.

Arvind Kejriwal and other members of his political party steadfastly refused to apply for bail, a court in Delhi however said they will not be arrested because they have promised to attend future hearings of the case that charges them with defying police orders to protest at the Prime Minister's house in on August 26 (click here to know more about this Gherao) .
Kejriwal, despite being urged by the judge to argue his case, said he would rather go to jail than apply for bail because he believes he is being politically persecuted for taking on the government. 

The next hearing is scheduled for February 23.

Team is alleged of violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code which bans groups larger than five from gathering as a precaution for maintaining law and order.
The co-founder of Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan told the judge, "The imposition of Section 144 is a violation of fundamental rights to protest peacefully in a democracy."


Editor's View
|Frankly this Section 144  is nothing but a method of police(controlled by government) to turn down the democratic protest.Its maybe called SEMI form of Marshal law that ANGREEZ (Britishers) used to use against freedom protests. I want to ask Police where this so called "Section 144" vanishes when the more violent and dangerous protests are held by political parties like Shiv Sena, congress, BJP etc and why it only shows its face when a citizen holds a peaceful protests! This partiality in implementation of  Section 144  simply proves than this code is nothing but a CITIZEN VOICE SUPPRESSOR(cvs)! | 

Source:http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/arvind-kejriwal-gets-his-way-in-court-refuses-to-apply-for-bail-326780

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Coalgate-protests-Arvind-Kejriwal-Prashant-Bhushan-comply-with-summons-released/articleshow/18351024.cms

AAP's Internal Lokpal's Progess/changes P-1

See latest state of internal lokpal here

In October last year, Kejrival had announced that an internal lokpal of the APP(lokpal that will investigate against irregularities in the party) consisting of  three-member panel of retired judges headed by Justice AP Shah would investigate charges of impropriety against its members including Prashant Bhushan, Anjali Damania and Mayank Gandhi. 
Apart from Shah Justice BH Marlapalle (retd) of Bombay high court and Justice Jaspal Singh (retd) of Delhi high court were members of the internal lokpal of the APP.
Another lokpal termed as 'National lokpal' for the party is set up having Justice Bhagwati Prasad(Retd. chief justice of Jharkhand HC ) and  former Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas 

Kejriwal however on Friday(Feb ,2 2013) said the panel could not begin work due to paucity of time. He also said that according to the code devised by their internal lokpal, it would not take suo moto cases but only investigate cases referred by a complainant. The internal lokpal has also decided to pursue cases of national executive members only.
This means  that at present, internal lokpal will only be looking at case of Mayank Gandhi only against whom allegations have been raised . He added that a report on Gandhi would be made public in less than two months. 
However Kejrival said that there is no complainant against Prashant Bhushan so he will not be investigated. Also he said that Damania is a member of the state unit so she can be investigated by the lokpal's state unit.

Editor's View: First they announced probe against all the three i.e Bhushan, Mayank and Damania. Now the check-list is reduced to just one! Well honestly it was not a decent thing to be done by APP. They should change this decision.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aam-Aadmi-Partys-internal-lokpal-still-to-submit-report/articleshow/18300047.cms

Arvind Kejriwal targets Sheila Dikshit on power distribution:Complete Coverage

•  Arvind Kejriwal today(1, Feb 2013) targeted Sheila Dikshit Government(Delhi) alleging that  power distribution companies in the capital "fudged" their records and "committed fraud" to show losses in their revenue while actually making profits. 

•  Kehrival claimed that Delhiites are paying two times the electricity bills they should actually be paying .According to Kejrival Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chief  Brijender Singh had concluded that power companies would make profits of Rs 3,577 crores which if passed on to the consumers would result in 23 per cent reduction in tarrifs. That's why he was to pass an order on May 5, 2010 to reduce tarrif  but Delhi Government wrote a letter to Brijender Singh on May 4 under pressure from distribution companies (discoms )and stopped him from issuing the order 
• For proof he circulated copies of the letter written by Joint Secretary (Power) S.M Ali on May 4 to Brijender Singh.
• He alleged that BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani owned by Anil Ambani group were showing zero bills for a number of consumers including the Delhi Airport and the Delhi Jal Board.These were done to show losses.
• He attacked the opposition as well saying that the BJP did not raise these issues despite having proof by not doing justice to its role as Opposition party.
• Kejrival demanded that hat FIRs for alleged cheating be registered against the discoms and performance and financial audit of discoms by the CAG should be arranged.He also demanded to dismiss the current chairman of DERC.

RESPONSE

• Dikshit's office termed the allegations as "bunch of lies".
• Power Minister Harun Yusuf  in defense said "The tariff order he was referring to was not signed by all the three members of the DERC. So you cannot call it a tariff order. Even Delhi High court had held that it was not a DERC order,"
• Yusuf also said Berjinder Singh had made calculations on assumptions that power would be available from newly built power plants at low rates. But actually those plants could not generate power as per expectation due to various reasons.
• Yusuf also said Delhi Government did not have any problem with CAG audit of accounts of the distribution companies.
• "In last 10 years, there has been 83 per cent hike in power tariff against 137 per cent increase in power purchase cost. We always tried to be very transparent," said Yusuf.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/arvind-kejriwal-targets-sheila-dikshit-on-power-distribution/1068009/0

Dizzy Lokpal Bill cleared by the Cabinet:complete Report

Cabinet on Thursday( 31,Jan 2013) cleared the amended version of Lokpal Bill suggested by the standing committee of Rajya Sabha. Out of 16 amendments suggested by the standing committee 14 were accepted(click here to see the suggested amendments).
However as usual the bill is still in critically weak state. Major points that were demanded by the public to strengthen the bill are still missing.

WEAKNESSES of the cleared lokpal amendment

• Most stupid point the bill cleared by the cabinet is that political parties are out of the jurisdiction of the anti-corruption institute. |i.e even if such a bill passed then the lokpal will not be able to investigate the corruption in the political parties of the nation!Then what the hell will the lokpal be investigating?|
• The demand for the appointment of the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) chief by a group comprising the PM, leader of opposition and the Chief Justice of India in order to prevent the government control on CBI was also rejected by the the cabinet. | i.e CBI will still be under the control of government as appointment of the chief will  not be made by the independent group|
• The amended draft also leaves the implementation of Lokayukta bill(state version of lokpal)) and appointment of Lokayuktas to the states.|This decision of making lokayukta a state defined creation is wrong as it will make Lokayukta different in every state leading to difficult usage of bill in multi-state corruption cases.Moreover state governments may also use their own scissors on the bill to hide their level of corruption Click HERE for complete point-wise analysis on this  |
• Public servant facing an inquiry by the Lokpal will be given an opportunity to be heard at the stage of the preliminary inquiry.
• Lokpal  will have a prosecution wing of its own but will not have a say in the transfer of officials investigating a case taken up by it. |Another epic non-sense|
• The CBI will report to the lokpal with regard to cases under lokpal scrutiny and the body will be able to ask any relevant agency to take up an investigation. |However CBI is still under the potential control of government. So this step can't undo that flaw|

Arvind Kejriwal had demanded, "Why does the government not fulfill one single demand and make the CBI independent. There is no point making committees after committees."

 Anna Hazare had also demanded that the CVC and CBI be brought under the Lokpal. "I have written a letter to Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister asking whether CBI and CVC will be under the Lokpal. If they're not, how will we check corruption," questioned Anna. 

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/current-affairs/cbi-under-lokpal-supervision-as-cabinet-clears-bill_816333.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cabinet-clears-Lokpal-Bill-with-amendments-keeps-parties-out-of-its-ambit/articleshow/18280578.cms
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/it-makes-no-sense-to-exempt-political-parties-from-lokpals-ambit/articleshow/18282642.cms