Naidu rejects draft Lok Pal Bill

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday rejected the draft Lok Pal Bill approved by the Union Cabinet.

Talking to reporters at his residence, Naidu said that the Congress-led UPA Government has cheated the Civil Society members including Anna Hazare on the Lok Pal Bill. He said the Bill in the format proposed by the Centre was not acceptable, as it would not serve any purpose.

Naidu demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should be brought under the purview of the Lok Pal. He feared that the CBI would be misused by the party in power if it is excluded from the Lok Pal's purview. Further, he said the conditional inclusion of Prime Minister's in the Lok Pal too was not acceptable to the Tdp.

The Tdp chief alleged that the Congress party tried hard to stop the Lok Pal Bill. He asked the Congress party and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to think of the country and people, than trying to protect the interest of the ruling party. However, he said that the Tdp was yet to decide on what it would do when the Bill comes up for voting in the Parliament.

Referring to the arrests of senior IAS officials Srilakshmi and VD Rajagopal in the Obulapuram Mining Corporation illegal mining case, Naidu said that during his tenure as the Chief Minister several IAS officials from the State were elevated to the higher posts. However, during the Congress regime, the officials are being sent to the prison primarily due to the corrupt activities of the ministers.

The Tdp president also condemned the attack on Handlooms Minster Dr P Shankar Rao by some Congress activists at LB Nagar on Tuesday. However, he said that it was unfortunate that Home Minister P Sabitha Indira Reddy was being suspected for engineering the attack. He said a Home Minister facing the allegations of attack on another minister clearly indicates the sorry state of law and order situation in the State. He also alleged that the ruling party was supporting the mafia.