New Delhi :BJP today asked the AAP government to put the Cabinet note on the Jan Lokpal Bill in public domain claiming that the draft was cleared despite “objections” of top officials and accused it of not taking the Lt Governor’s nod for tabling Bills.
Leader of Oppostion Vijender Gupta, accompanied by BJP MLAs OP Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan met LG Najeeb Jung in this regard even as the Delhi Congress said that the ruling party lacks “intentions” to pass the Bill in its “undiluted” form.
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken also claimed that the AAP government passed the Bill without any “cabinet note” demanding that the version that was tabled during the previous stint of the ruling party should be adhered to.
“The government is claiming to have cleared the Bill. But why are they not putting on public domain the Cabinet note? Is it because it contains objections including from the Law department and the Chief Secretary?” Gupta asked.
The BJP legislators told Jung that the government would introduce “eight important Bills” without his prior approval in the ongoing session of the Delhi Assembly.
“The presentation of Bills without approval of the Lt. Governor is a futile exercise as they become null and void,” Gupta added.
Maken held a press conference on the issue flanked by former DPCC chief Arvinder Singh Lovely and senior Congress leader Haroon Yusuf and said that if the government intended to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill, “it would not have waited for nine months and six Assembly sessions.”
“There were different versions of the Lokpal mooted by Anna Hazare, Kejriwal and others, which varies from Lokpal, Jan Lokpal to Lokayukta, but the Congress Party wants the Jan Lokpal Bill on the pattern of the draft Bill tabled in the Delhi Assembly on February 13, 2014,” Maken said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is trying to use the Jan Lokpal Bill like a “football”. “He has to follow the Transaction of Business rules, and it cannot come in the winter Session without the sanction of the LG,” Maken added.
PTI