‘All efforts to pass Lokpal Bill in this session’

Agencies

New Delhi, 18 December 2011: The Union Cabinet will consider the Lokpal Bill on Sunday and make all efforts to get it passed during the ongoing Parliament session, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told accompanying journalists while returning from the annual India-Russia summit.

 

“We are working day and night to give shape to the Bill and it is my hope that by tomorrow [Sunday] we should be able to bring it to the Cabinet. And thereafter we will be ready to take it to Parliament.

 

 

“Once it is in Parliament, it will be in the hands of Parliament and we don’t know what could happen. But there should not be any doubt about our sincerity to get the Bill passed in this session,” Dr. Singh said to a query.

 

The question was asked in the context of social activist Anna Hazare threatening to launch an indefinite fast on December 27, five days after the scheduled end of the winter session.

 

On the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which has been unable to function due to protests, the government has adopted an unyielding position with Dr. Singh stating Rs. 14,000-crore investments could not be allowed to lie idle.