New Delhi: Amid demands for an effective Lokpal, which also covers the lower bureaucracy, the government has prepared a draft bill to address the issue of corruption at the local level.
The Rural Development Ministry and the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions have prepared two separate drafts of the Grievance Redressal Bill.
Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh said, the two ministries have exchanged their drafts with each other to study their versions.
A final version of the draft bill will be out after Ramesh and V Narayanasamy, who heads the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, meet on September 14, Ramesh said.
Asked, whether the Government`s move is to counter Hazare`s demand that lower bureacracy should be brought under the Lokpal, Ramesh said, "That is a separate issue" and "we want to do something to end corruption at the cutting edge
level".
"We hope the new bill will address the problems of grivance redressal at local level," said Ramesh, who had claimed earlier that the new Bill was to address the concerns of the beneficieries of various Rural Development Ministry schemes, including NREGA, who complain about corruption.
PTI
