Hyderabad. In the backdrop of ruling Congress and opposition Telugu Desam Party hurling corruption charges against each other, the Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government introduce a Bill in the budget session of the Assembly to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) to bring the guilty to book.
Talking to the media, party spokespersons Katari Srinivasa Rao and V Laxman Balaji claimed that while mainstream political parties were hurling charges of ''massive corruption'' against each other, they collude with each other in preventing the creation of an effective mechanism to tackle the menace.
They recalled that Lok Satta Party president Jayaprakash Narayan had circulated a Bill to amend the PCA in June last year with stringent provisions, but both the mainstream parties ''cold-shouldered it for obvious reasons.'' Dr Narayan's Bill proposes that all members of Parliament and the State Legislature, and elected members of panchayats, municipalities, and municipal corporations be deemed as public servants and brought under the ambit of the PCA.
The need to amend the Act has become more imperative with the TDP and the Congress levelling charges against each other once again and a section of media reporting that the Anti-Corruption Bureau has been hamstrung in raiding some highly corrupt top officials and that politicians have grabbed vast tracts of Wakf land, and a large number of top officials were guilty of irregularities in irrigation projects’ construction, the LSP spokespersons further said.
Jharkhand
