Demand a new Lokpal Bill, says Team Anna

New Delhi:  Meeting a Parliamentary panel to put forth their views on the Lokpal Bill, activist Anna Hazare and his associates today demanded a new Bill and suggested the Standing Committee should reject the Government's Lokpal Bill.

• Mr Hazare and his team were asked by the government to meet the Standing Committee on Law and Justice.
• The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 4 amid BJP's objection over non-inclusion of the office of the Prime Minister under the purview of the anti-corruption watchdog. The Bill is meant to check corruption among politicians and bureaucrats. But Hazare's team says the government has drafted a Bill that ensures the Lokpal or ombudsman has no real powers. In protest, Anna Hazare has said he is determined to begin a hunger fast on August 16 in the Capital.
• "We are doing this for the public, for the country," he said today. "There is nothing in the Bill which has been introduced in Parliament. It is just a show off. It has been drafted just to tell people that we have a law to fight corruption. It will be of no use," Hazare added.
• Along with four activists nominated by him, Anna was part of the drafting committee for the Bill. The government was represented by five ministers.  Both sides clashed repeatedly, resulting in two disparate versions of the Lokpal Bill. The government has chosen to present its ministers' version in Parliament.