Notwithstanding its virtual rejection by Team Anna, the Himachal Pradesh Lokayukta Bill is likely to be tabled in the state Assembly within a day or two after the suggestions from the Lokayukta are received. Even as Team Anna, whose suggestions had been sought by the Himachal Government, had rejected the Draft Bill, Chief Minister PK Dhumal said today that the Bill would be tabled in the Assembly during the ongoing Budget session, which would conclude on April 6.

NEW DELHI: Environmentalist GD Agarwal, 80, who is on a fast-unto-death since Jan 15 to save the Ganga river on Friday agreed to end his fast after the government agreed to his demands, his supporters said. "He will break his fast today (Friday) as we got a communique from the government accepting our demands," Tarun Agarwal, GD Agarwal's nephew, told IANS.

Threatening to launch a “big protest” for a strong Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare on Friday said the government will have to go if it does not bring a strong anti-corruption law. He said he will campaign for a strong Lokpal Bill till the next Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and if it does not come by then, he will sit in protest in Ramlila Maidan in Delhi soon after declaration of polls.

“They have to bring (the law) or they will have to go. We will organise a big struggle,” social activist said addressing the India Today Conclave here.

‘But cumbersome anti-graft apparatus can delay decisions'

With a slew of scams vitiating the government's policy-making environment and holding up reforms, the Economic Survey 2011-12 on Thursday advocated need for a ruthless crackdown on corruption, but cautioned that a large and cumbersome anti-corruption bureaucracy could impact decision-making.

New Delhi: Almost a year after he tapped into public discontent, activist Anna Hazare will return to Jantar Mantar on Sunday to press for a strong whistleblowers’ Act. Hazare will sit on a daylong protest fast spurred by the outcry over the killing of IPS officer Narender Kumar by mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh last week. He will be supported by other activists like Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Shanti Bhushan.

Under fire over the killing of a young IPS officer allegedly by the mining mafia, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday announced that his government will recommend CBI probe, a demand made by the victim’s family. The issue rocked the Assembly, which was adjourned for the day after the Congress stormed the well demanding a CBI probe into the killing of Narendra Kumar Singh in Morena district last week.

Team Anna on Friday demanded enactment of a stringent law to protect whistleblowers and asked the government to ensure adequate security for those fighting against corruption after a 30-year-old IPS officer was brutally killed allegedly by a mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh. “Strong whistleblower protection law is needed, not the one presented by the UPA government. The government's law seeks to protect the corrupt and victimise the whistleblowers...No more of routine condolence statements from some ministers needed,” Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

Ever since Anna Hazare’s call for a strong Lokpal bill reached fever-pitch in autumn, and the government bought time with ostensibly conciliatory moves, everyone had been waiting for ‘the due process’ to bear fruit. But the 30-member standing committee chaired by Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, set up to frame a draft bill, is still struggling to evolve anything like a consensus. As we went to press on December 1, an emergency meeting of the committee ended in a stalemate on various contentious issues, with the final touches on the draft still pending.