After an acrimonious meeting last week, the joint drafting committee on Lok Pal Bill today agreed on most of the issues but new areas of disagreement like the manner of selection and removal of the ombudsman came up adding to persisting differences on contentious aspects.
Both the government side and the Anna Hazare team said the three-hour-long meeting was held in a "very cordial atmosphere" but differed on the extent of its success.
The committee will meet tomorrow for the last time during which both the sides will exchange their drafts on which they will comment upon.
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters that 80-85% issues were resolved while activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan differed on this percentage but contended that there was consensus on majority of the issues.
"On a range of issues, there is a broad agreement. It is a major step forward. Both sides feel we should move towards a consensus to formulate a draft where difficult issues of divergence are spelt out when it goes to political parties sometime in July," Sibal said.
On the basis of this, a strong Lok Pal Bill can be drafted and sent to Cabinet so that it can be introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon session.
"There is agreement on 80-85% of issues," Sibal said. Immediately after, Bhushan said agreement was on minor issues and differences persisted on ontentious issues like bringing under Lok Pal the post of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and the conduct of MPs inside Parliament.
He said "two new issues" of divergence came up. These relate to the constitution of the selection panel and procedure for removal of Lokpal.
