New Delhi: When the latest round of battle between the Anna Hazare camp and the Centre broke out on August 16 in this ongoing Lokpal Bill war, there were five big points of divergence.
Ten days down, let's take stock of the differences.
1) Inclusion of the Prime Minister: Team Anna wanted it. The Centre did not. Team Anna has relented.
2) Inclusion of higher judiciary: Team Anna wanted it, the Centre did not. Team Anna agreed to keep the higher judiciary out of the purview of the Bill.
3) Inclusion of lower bureaucracy: Team Anna wants it. The Centre says it is not feasible as it would require creation of a mammoth institution to monitor more than 4 million government employees.
4) Appointment of lokayuktas in states: Team Anna wants to bring these state appointments under the Jan Lokpal Bill. The Centre does not want to step on the states' toes.
5) Citizen's Charter for all government offices: Team Anna wants specific time limits set for services offered by a particular government office, to set the quantum of punishment (jail term, fine, etc) in case of delay or non-delivery and to define the role of every person working there. The Centre does not agree.
So, Team Anna has climbed down on two points. But three sticking points still remain.
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