Social activist Aruna Roy along with other leading activists today demanded the immediate passage of the grievance redress bill and the whistleblower protection bill contending enactment of Lokpal bill is not adequate to fight corruption.
Welcoming the passage of Lokpal Bill by Parliament, the members of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) said that in order to have an effective accountability framework for people of the country, the passage of the pending grievance redress bill and the whistleblower protection bill is crucial.
The failure to pass the accompanying accountability legislations will thus not even meet the promises made by Parliament in its August 2011 resolution, in which it promised the people of India that it will legislate a mechanism for grievance redress and citizen charter, the members said.
"In Parliament, during the debate on Lokpal bill, the leader of Congress Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley, senior Minister Kapil Sibal and MPs of JD(U), CPI, CPI-M and BJP mentioned the urgent need to pass these crucial bills.
"As there is complete consensus across political parties on these legislations, Parliament should have taken up these bills for discussion and passed them. While senior ministers mentioned that the Parliament session could be extended to pass the accompanying accountability measures, it is inexplicable why the session was adjourned two days before its scheduled closure," member of NCPRI, Aruna Roy said.
