BJP to hit streets if Lokayukta Act not implemented unchanged

BJP today threatened to hit the streets in Uttarakhand if the Lokayukta Act is not implemented in the state in the form in which it has been ratified by President Pranab Mukherjee.
"There are provisions in the Lokayukta Act to bring everyone to justice, howsoever high a public office he may hold and the President while giving his ascent to it has kept it unchanged. Hence, we want its implementation as it is ," state BJP chief Tirath Singh Rawat told reporters here.
On Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna giving indications that the state government may amend the Act before implementing it, Rawat said the party will take to the streets in protest if there was any attempt to dilute provisions which seek to fight corruption in high offices.

The Congress government in the state is averse to implementing the Act because it is "steeped in corruption", he alleged.
Endorsing state assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal's statement in which he had said that not bringing the Act into force will send out a wrong message, the BJP leader said the state government should show some regard for the constitutional post of Speaker.
It was during the previous BJP government in Uttarakhand headed by B C Bhanduri that the Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill, drafted on the lines of Anna Hazare's Lokpal Bill, was unanimously passed by the state Assembly and sent to then President Pratibha Patil for ascent.

It was recently given ascent by President Pranab Mukherjee.