Bhubaneswar: Orissa Chief Minister Naveen
Patnaik on Wednesday said the state goverment would like to submit
views on the draft of the Lokpal Bill in entirety instead of
the few "restricted" issues referred by the Centre.
"We would like to give our views on the entire Bill
and not restrict ourselves to the six issues that have been
referred in the questionnaire," Patnaik said in his reply to
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The Union government, in a recent letter to the chief
minister, had sought views of the state government on the
Lokpal Bill.
"It is suggested that the Union government may
finalise the draft of the Lokpal legislation on which we will
be able to give our views," Patnaik said, adding that
appropriate time for this could be before the Bill was
presented in the Parliament.
BJD was not consulted at the time of constitution of
the committee for drafting the Bill, Patnaik said.
"... And my party would give its opinion on the
subject in Parliament and not before," he added.
PTI
