Backing social activist Anna Hazare's demand for a strong and effective Jan Lokpal Bill, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has said the Prime Minister, the lower bureaucracy and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should be brought within the ambit of the Lokpal.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Ms. Mayawati slammed the Congress-led UPA government for ‘dilly-dallying' on the Lokpal Bill and said that it did not want a strong institution to tackle corruption.
Ms. Mayawati said the Bahujan Samaj Party would attend the all-party meeting convened by the Centre on Wednesday where it will press its demand for the Lokpal being vested with powers to probe corruption charges against the Prime Minister and the group C and D officers and employees of the Central government.
The Chief Minister said bringing the CBI within the purview of the Lokpal would check the misuse of the investigation agency by the governments at the Centre. She made it clear that the BSP would not support the Lokpal Bill if these points were not incorporated in the draft.
She said the Lokpal's powers should not be limited as “it would not benefit the ‘aam janata' (common people).”
She attacked the UPA government for not displaying the grit to fight corruption, which manifested in several scandals like the CWG and 2G scams. Ms. Mayawati accused the Centre of deliberately concealing the names of the persons whose money was stashed abroad.
“The UPA has closed its eyes to the corruption charges against the Congress and its Ministers.”
Ms. Mayawati urged the Centre that the office of the Lokpal should follow the spirit of the Constitution keeping in mind the federal structure. She advocated the incorporation of Bhimrao Ambedkar's philosophy in the Lokpal Bill and added that all sections, mainly the deprived ones, should find representation on the framing committee.
She said the “BSP government was the only one in the country which had taken action on the Lokayukta's recommendation, unlike the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress governments in Karnataka and Delhi.”
