Jan Lokpal Bill stuck with AAP govt, says BJP
New Delhi, June 8: The BJP MLAs on Friday alleged that a file related to Jan Lokpal Bill has been stuck with the AAP government for the past nine months -- a claim that was not directly countered by the latter.
A strong Jan Lokpal Bill (an anti-corruption Bill) was one of the main planks on which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fought the election and came to power in Delhi.
Replying to the allegation, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the Central government sat on the Bill for around 21 months and after that they raised the point whether the Delhi Assembly has the power to pass the Bill.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators walked out of the House to register protest after their request for a reply on the Bill being allegedly stuck with the AAP government was turned down.
The MLAs then sat on a dharna outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office in the Assembly, seeking an apology from him on the issue.
In a letter to Kejriwal, Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta and MLAs Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Jagdish Pradhan demanded that the file related to the Bill be tabled in the Assembly without any delay.
"You (Kejriwal) knew about all this. Despite this you are intentionally delaying it," the letter read.
Outside Kejriwal's office, Sirsa said: "The Bill is being delayed to save Satyendar Jain. We will fight for Jan Lokpal Bill and implement it. We will also bring down Kejriwal from power and send Satyendar Jain to jail."
The BJP legislators also made available a purported official history of the file related to the Bill, which showed that it was pending with the Delhi government as on Thursday.
The Jan Lokpal Bill was passed by the Delhi Assembly on December 4, 2015.
Sisodia said that on August 23, 2017, the Centre said in a reply that the Central government's department concerned was looking into the Bill.
"However, the technical issue regarding the lack of competence of the Delhi Assembly needs to be further deliberated," the Central government's response said, according to Sisodia.
He said the Bill would have come into effect in a month's time if Delhi was a full state.
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Muslim leaders submit memorandum to JPC member Imran Masood against Waqf Bill
Jaipur (PTI): A delegation of Muslim leaders associated with the Congress met party MP Imran Masood, who is a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, in Ajmer on Sunday and submitted a memorandum against the provisions of the bill.
The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 8 and referred to a joint parliamentary panel after a heated debate. The 31-member panel will submit its report by the next session of Parliament.
While the government has asserted that the proposed law did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques, the opposition called it targeting of Muslims and an attack on the Constitution.
The delegation of Muslim leaders met Masood, who was on a visit to Ajmer, and said the members of the community are opposed to the amendments because Waqf is a religious matter of the Muslims.
"We will not allow the government to interfere in our religious matters. The Constitution allows us to function according to our religion. The truth is that the government's intentions are not right," stated the memorandum addressed to the JPC's head Jagdambika Pal.
"Waqf is a completely religious matter and interference in it will not be right," it said.
The delegation included Ghulam Mustafa Chishti, Muzaffar Bharti, Rab Nawaz Jafri, Manzoor Ali, Ashraf Buland Khan, Ajmat Khan and Wahid Mohammad.
