Lokayukta bill full of flaws, says CPI-ML

PATNA: CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Thursday said that the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government is on the same wavelength with the UPA on the issue of appointment of Lokayukta in the states.
Bhattacharya , who is attending the two-day ML Central Committee meet which commenced on Thursday, said that the Bill to be tabled in this winter session in the Bihar legislature is full of flaws and lacks effective mechanism to check corruption in public life.
He said that the selection process of the Lokayuktas as proposed in the draft Bill leaves scope for political pressures and added it also does not give autonomy to the office of Lokayukta. The ML leader said that the draft Bill also discourages the whistleblowers as stringent punishment criteria exist for filing frivolous charges.
On development front, too, Bhattacharya lambasted the NDA government saying the state has registered zero development in agriculture, industry and power sector in the last six years and also termed Nitish’s statement that migration has declined as a ‘white lie’. The ML leader, in the light of finance ministry’s note on 2G spectrum scam, demanded Union home minister P Chidambaram’s resignation. The ML leader termed the UPA II government at the Centre as the most corrupt one in the history.
On Mayawati’s decision to bifurcate Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states, Dipankar dubbed the development as nothing more than a political stunt in view of ensuing UP assembly elections though in the same vein, he said, “I am not against smaller states and demand for Bundelkhand and Purvanchal are genuine.”
On Telangana issue, he accused the Congress of backtracking after committing to make Telangana a separate state. He also opposed the Centre’s move of allowing FDI in the retail sector. Bhattacharya demanded withdrawal of Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill, 2011, listed to be tabled in Parliament during its winter session saying it lacks teeth.
On the issue of ensuing state assembly elections in three states, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, Dipankar said the ML would contest election with the CPI and CPM in Uttarakhand though the party is likely to enter electoral battle in Punjab sans the CPI and CPM, as consensus could not be reached with them.