Government agrees to a voice vote on Lokpal debate in Parliament

NEW DELHI: There will be a voice vote on a resolution after debate on the Lokpal issue in Parliament, Times Now reported. There will be no division on the voice vote.

Team Anna aide Arvind Kejriwal said that they are happy with the government’s decision to have a voice on the Lokpal debate.

Once the resolution is passed, Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, along with a letter from PM Manmohan Singh, would go to meet Anna Hazare.

The government is working on a draft of a resolution to be adopted by both houses of Parliament on Saturday in a bid to break the logjam on the Lokpal issue so that Anna Hazare could end his 12-day-old fast.

Hectic discussions within government and between government and opposition parties were on to finalise the resolution that could be taken up at the end of the discussion in both the Houses for adoption.

Finance minister and leader of the house in the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee had a meeting with BJP leader and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and is understood to have discussed the contents of the resolution.

Mukherjee also met senior ministerial colleagues including law minister Salman Khurshid and parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal. He is also expected to have consultation with government allies and leaders of other parties.

The finance minister is also expected to meet Team Anna members, including Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal.

Sources said the resolution is expected to make a reference to three issues raked up by Anna Hazare — coverage of entire lower bureaucracy under Lokpal, passage of a bill on creation of Lokayuktas in states and citizens charter for redressal of grievances.

The resolution would recommend that these issues be considered by the standing committee before which already the official bill introduced by the government and the Jan Lokpal bill have been referred for in-depth consideration.

Hazare had demanded that the Parliament should accept the three key demands of the civil society for him to end the fast. (Agencies)