Lokayukta

Anna Hazare

Devendra Fadnavis

Bharatiya Janata Party

hunger strike

Having won his battle, ensuring the Maharashtra government puts together thebill,was all praises for Chief Minister (CM), commending him for doing a better job than the(BJP) at the Centre. He underscored that the Lokayukta bill in the making will put an end to corruption in the state and the exercise has pepped his hopes from the government.In Pune to attend the first meeting to draft the bill at Yashada, on Tuesday, the champion of the anti-corruption movement in the country was very buoyant about the process. Fadnavis appointed a committee to draft the bill after Hazare sat on ain February this year. The bill is scheduled to be introduced in the assembly session that will begin on June 17.The 10-member committee is constituted by five government officials and five members drawn from the civil society. Clearly elated by the process initiated, Hazare was quick to differentiate between the functioning of the union and state governments.“We should praise the ones doing good work and criticize those who aren’t. We had to protest to draw attention to our demands but this CM reacted differently. Unlike the manner in which the work is being done in Maharashtra, the central government has not been so effective. Fadnavis is doing good work and I do not care which party he belongs to. I have been critical of other members of his party, but he has been an exception,” he vouched.Batting for the need for the Lokayukta bill to end corruption, he reiterated, “We have nothing to do with politics, parties and elections. We just want the Lokpal to be implemented – something we’ve been fighting for since 2011. Our protests forced the centre to clear the Lokpal bill. With that in place we wanted the state governments to frame the Lokayukta law too. The CM committed to introducing the Lokayukta bill in the first assembly session after I protested and this is set to happen soon. We five representing the civil society are working with the five government officials to draft an ideal Lokayukta bill, a strong one, at that.”