Lokpal Bill likely to spring back to central stage in Budget session: CIC

Observing that the people "had lost faith and trust in the government," the Chief Information Commissioner today said that the Lokpal Bill was "bound to come" and predicted it would come under focus in the forthcoming budget session in Parliament.

"Lokpal or the Jan Lokpal.is likely to again spring back to the central stage as soon as the Budget Session is announced...It is bound to come because the people have lost faith, trust in the government. Not so much in the government, but in the government servants," Satyanand Mishra, Chief Information Commissioner, said while addressing a workshop on RTI Act here.

"Most people do not believe that the people in the government are doing the right thing or doing things objectively. (That they are) doing things without a hope of some illegal gratification," he said.

Holding that Lokpal was an "insistent demand," the CIC said, "Because people have this kind of a belief, almost across the board that the people in the government, so therefore there is an insistent demand that there must be an ombudsman who should completely independently be there, and if a complaint comes, and should spring on you like a tonne of bricks and bring you to book".