UP chief minister Mayawati on Tuesday said hat that her party wanted the Prime Minister, CBI and the lower bureaucracy to be brought under the ambit of the proposed Lokpal bill.
She said her party would place these demands at the all party meeting on the issue on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, the chief minister said that he party would oppose the Lokpal bill in its present form because she wanted a strong Lokpal that could check corruption and criminalisation of politics.
Ms Mayawati said the Lokpal should have control over the CBI so as to prevent its misuse by central governments.
“I am also a victim of misuse of CBI in the Taj Corridor case,” she said and added that an effective Lokpal would automatically curb criminalisation of politics while tackling corruption because it is corruption that leads to criminalisation of politics.
Supporting the demand for inclusion of Group C and D employees in the Lokpal, Ms Mayawati said that corruption affects the common man from the bottom and one must strike at its roots by including the lower bureaucracy.
However, she made it clear that while drafting the Lokpal bill, the essence of the constitution should be preserved.
“The bill must respect the federal spirit and structure of the Constitution and a consensus must be forged before the bill is tabled. Besides, the provisions of the bill must be clear even to the common man,” she said.
The chief minister reiterated her earlier demand for inclusion of dalits, backwards and minorities in the Lokpal as well as in the drafting committee. “In fact, all religions and all sections of society must be included to ensure that everyone is represented,” she stated.
The chief minister accused the Congress of not being sufficiently serious about bringing a strong Lokpal bill. “The centre is neither serious about bringing a strong Lokpal nor about bringing back black money stashed in foreign countries,” she pointed out.
The chief minister further pointed out that she had take strong and visible steps to check corruption and had even initiated action whenever anyone was found to be indulging in corruption in her government. She said that she had not hesitated in taking action against her own party leaders and minister on this issue. Besides, her government had already implemented the citizen’s charter in the form of the UP Janhit Guarantee Act.
Ms Mayawati admitted that criminalisation of politics and corruption had been handed over to her government by her predecessors but she worked vigorously to clean up the government of such elements.