UPA favours placing Lokpal Bill in Monsoon Session

[1]

Pranab Mukherjee speaks to the media in Kolkata on Monday, ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal

Welcoming BJP leader L.K. Advani's statement of pledging support to the Lokpal Bill, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that the UPA government was in favour of placing the Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

"The drafting committee will discuss the bill and the government will see that it is placed in the monsoon session of Parliament," Mukherjee told a meet-the-press programme here.

Mukherjee, who is the co-chairman of the joint committee that will draft the Lokpal bill said, "We will complete the work of the committee quickly, so that we can place the bill in the Monsoon Session."

Mukherjee welcomed Advani's statement expressing support for the bill: "I welcome his support. I have kept him informed. His party has to support the bill in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha by pressing the button in its favour when it will be put to vote, only after which it will be passed."

He said he had also discussed the issue with the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj and other parties including the Left.

"There was talk about Lokpal bill since 1972. Advani was a minister in the Union government from 1977 to 1980 and a home minister from 1998 to 2004 when his party was leading the government. Nobody stopped them from passing the bill. Nevertheless, better late than never. If they support it on Monday it is good."

The minister said members of the joint committee onthe Lokpal bill would sit together and discuss it.