HYDERABAD: Social activist and member of the National Advisory Council Aruna Roy opposed Anna Hazare's views on the Jan Lokpal bill and described formation of a single Lokpal to make public servants accountable as a "disastrous affair". She said such a model could work for nation states such as Singapore but not a huge country like India.
Roy was speaking at a seminar organised by Progressive Forum State Committee in the city on Monday.
"If power corrupts then absolute power will lead to absolute corruption and we cannot let one body be responsible for the corruption and the grievances all over India," Roy said, adding that there should be different anti-corruption bodies for different public service units. Talking about the highlights of the draft that the National Campaign for People's Right to Information had presented in the parliament on August 4, she said that there have to be different lateral bodies fighting corruption so that work does not pile up with one institution.
According to this draft, a National Anti-corruption Commission will be devised to tackle possible corruption by all the elected representatives including the PM, MPs and senior bureaucrats. Central vigilance commission will be made independent and will be empowered to investigate corruption at the mid level bureaucracy. Judicial Accountability Commission will strengthen the existing judicial accountability without compromising with its independence along with a Grievance Redress Commission which will be time-bound decentralized system to address the grievances of the public.
This draft also has the provision for the protection of whistle blowers under the clause for Whistleblower Protection. This will ensure appropriate protection to whistleblowers in all government and non-government departments.
Roy said "arbitrary use of power and denial of rights to the public is also corruption and to curb this the public has to take the first step by demanding accountability."
Significant corrupt deals now happen virtually (with internet banking making transactions discreet) and only those people can be eligible to look into such matters who have knowledge about international banking and economics. And thus there is a need for various institutions each specialized in a specific area, to check corruption.
1 comments:
Aruna Roy should first explain
what was the necessity of her version of the Lokpal Draft, when the reluctant UPA was dilly dallying with Anna Hazare's draft?
Is it not a hand in glove tactics with Congress to delay the whole process?
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