Lokpal Bill: Government may extend session

Govt is confident of approaching the Lower House for 'consideration and passage' of the Bill.

As Anna Hazare threatened the government on Thursday with a jail bharo agitation from January 1 to press for the passage of the Lokpal Bill by Parliament,the government only went to the extent of stating that it would come back to the Lok Sabha with an amended version of the legislation before the end of the current Winter Session.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told the media that the government was confident of approaching the Lower House for consideration and passage of the Bill. However,the immediate task for the government was to firm up its own views in the light of the report of the Standing Committee as well as inputs received from other quarters,including the all-party meeting,convened by PM Manmohan Singh on Wednesday evening.

The Cabinet is likely to take a call on the issue either on Sunday or Monday after the Prime Ministers return from Moscow.

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Bansal did not set any date for bringing the Bill back in the Lower House,but obviously he has less than a week left to do so considering that the session is set to conclude on December 22. The Bill could come up in the House on December 20 or 21. The minister said he had already sounded different parties about the possibility of extending the session for a day,till December 23.

However,sources in the government said alternatively,the winter session could be continued into January with a Christmas break in between. Though the rulebook stipulated that the first session in a new year begin with an address by the President to a joint sitting of both Houses,the government could overcome this hurdle by continuing the present session and designating the next budget session as the first session in the new year. The government could resort to this action to mollify Team Anna.

The government task had been complicated by the divergence of opinions among the 35 parties on the one hand and contradictions between what they said in public and at the all-party meeting on the other. Coupled with this were the variations among the views articulated by different leaders of same parties. While every other party expressed a general view,the ruling Congress and the government had to be mindful of implications of each proposal.

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