Officials clueless on Jan Lokpal Bill venue

NEW DELHI: A day before the Delhi assembly's four-day session to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill starts, there is no clarity on the venue for the last day's proceedings which the chief minister wants held inside the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

On Tuesday, the assembly secretariat issued a session notice for the first three days without stating the venue for the finale, or even indicating that it will be held outside the Vidhan Sabha.

Lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung had on Monday asked CM Arvind Kejriwal to reconsider his decision to hold the final day's proceedings in a stadium. In the absence of a clear direction, the assembly secretariat's notice merely states the agenda for the first three days' proceedings-February 13-15-that will be held inside the Vidhan Sabha.

Sources said the bill may run into trouble before the last day's session as BJP and AAP have pointed out constitutional issues in it and the AAP government could find it difficult to even get the vote for introducing it.

There is no precedent in the country for holding an assembly meeting outside the Vidhan Sabha premises. Such a plan can only be put into motion in Delhi on the LG's direction.

On the fate of the Jan Lokpal Bill, speaker MS Dhir said whatever stand the LG takes on its "constitutional" position will be read out in the assembly as his message, and the House will take forward the proceedings from there. He said the government and the LG have their own views on the matter and must be right in their own ways, indicating that the assembly secretariat too is in a wait-and-watch mode.

The eight Congress MLAs who are providing outside support to AAP met the speaker on Tuesday. Leader of the Congress Legislature Party and Ballimaran MLA, Haroon Yusuf, said, "We have not received the draft copy of the Jan Lokpal Bill yet. We are for a strong Jan Lokpal Bill but it has to be brought to the assembly as per the constitutional provisions and cannot be tabled without approval of the LG and the Centre. We will firm up our stand after we see the Bill". Leader of the opposition, Dr Harsh Vardhan, also said they have not seen the Bill and will support it only if it is in keeping with the Constitution.