Centre govt to bring in electoral reforms bill

PATNA: Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievance and Pension, V Narayanasami today said the Centre would bring a comprehensive electoral reform bill in keeping with the recommendations of the second administrative reform commission.

"The Centre will soon bring a comprehensive electoral reform bill seeking to keep application of criminals, money and muscle power away from the electoral process," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

The bill was aimed to eradicate misuse of money, muscle power and administrative machinery besides disallowing criminals by making the Election Commission of India more powerful and strong.

The union law ministry would give a final shape to the proposed bill in consultation with the prime minister and leaders of political parties, he said.

Narayanasami said the UPA government at the Centre was irrevocably committed to ensuring greater transparency and accountability in administration and lapses on the part of officials in making available the public utility services on time would not be tolerated.

To a question Narayanasami said Lokpal bill had already been tabled in Parliament. ''We are ready for a strong Lokpal bill by making required amendments which might be placed in Parliament in December.''

Narayansami said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted group of ministers (GoM) to identify nature of corruption considering the recommendations of the second administrative reform commission. ''We have so far received 1005 recommendations from the group.''