Hold special Parliament session to pass anti-graft bills: Activists

New Delhi: A day after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi made a strong pitch for more legislations to weed out corruption, activists today demanded convening of a special session of Parliament to pass bills dealing with graft at the grass-roots level. [caption id=“attachment_1301117” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “Just a Lokpal Bill is not enough. It is actually one part of many that have to come together. To our mind, the Grievance Redress Bill is ‘Aam Aadmi Ka Lokpal’,” said NCPRI, which has been advocating a series of anti-corruption measures to effectively tackle corruption at all levels. Welcoming the Congress Vice President’s statement at an industry function on Saturday, a prominent member of the NCPRI, Nikhil Dey, said there must be a special session for passage of the “Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievance Bill, 2011”. He pointed out that all parties including Congress, BJP and Left had agreed to pass the measure introduced in the Lok Sabha two years ago. It was referred to the parliamentary committee on Law and Justice and it has sent its report last year. But the legislation is still pending. “We feel that obviously as a ruling party, the Congress should take a lead of calling people and calling them together and holding the special session and making sure that this legislation is passed,” said Dey, who works with prominent rights activist Aruna Roy. “If that is not done, it will be a betrayal of what Parliament promise to the people,” he said. Addressing a FICCI conference, Rahul had said that Congress has developed a framework against corruption and the Grievance Redressal Bill will ensure that every citizen has the right to timely delivery of goods and services by their government. Another NGO Ekta Parishad, headed by Gandhian activist PV Rajagopal, also welcomed the Congress leader’s statement. “As a people’s movement we strongly believe in empowering the common man with an instrument for setting accountability of the state, we are hopeful that Parliament will take action to pass this law at the earliest,” it said. Rahul has emphaised the need for passage of six critical anti-corruption bills including the amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act. PTI