Lok pal bill agreement with government

Anna Hazare today stuck to his August 30 deadline for passage of Jan Lok Pal Bill and asked his supporters to intensify the protest by gheraoing the houses of Parliamentarians if government failed to do so.

Addressing his supporters after nearly a break of 40 hours, Hazare, who entered the second week of his fast, accused government of betraying all along the civil society on the issue of a strong Lok Pal Bill.

Hazare told the gathering at Ramlila Maidan that protesters in thousands should protest outside the residences of MPs if the government fails to get Jan Lok Pal Bill passed by August 30.

"Now, 25-30 people are sitting on dharnas in front of MPs' residences. If the government does not pass the bill by August 30, we have to intensify the protest. Protesters in thousands should gherao the residences of MPs then," he said.

Alleging that a few people in the government were "betraying" them, he said, "They betrayed us during the meetings of Joint Committee (on Lok Pal bill).

"I feel there are only 5-6 people in the government who are running the country and if such people, who do not have a social or national perspective, run the nation, then what will happen to this country...This is something to worry about," Hazare said.

"Even if Lok Pal comes and if such traitors run the country, what will happen. This is the question which is bothering me," the 73-year-old Gandhian said.

He said he was watching for the past four months after the government set up the Joint Committee for drafting Lok Pal bill. "Even there some people in the government were traitors, they tried to betray us," he said.

The remarks came amidst indications from both government and Team Anna about willingness to have talks on the issue with the civil society members demanding nomination of an official representative for the purpose. They have suggested that government either withdraw the official bill or amend it by including provisions of the Jan Lok Pal Bill. MORE PTI KAB SWT SJY PYK

"Let the government mandate somebody officially. We are waiting for a political dialogue. Today there is need for a political dialogue. It is not a technical issue. It is not a bureaucratic issue. It is a political problem," Hazare's close aide, Arvind Kejriwal said .

"There has to be a political solution rather than saying go and make your case to the Standing Committee. That is not the way," he said

He said officially they have not got any proposal from government.

Asked about various proposals being talked about, Kejriwal said, "There are two options. The government can withdraw its bill and introduce the Jan Lok Pal Bill or the government can bring amendments to the existing bill. The government should make a list on the points it agrees or disagrees on".

However, Kejriwal said Hazare has not insisted that he will talk only with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Team Anna is maintaining that no formal talks have begun even as close aides of spiritual leader Bhayyuji Maharaj handed over a fresh 11-point proposal to Hazare late in the night. However, they could not meet the Gandhian as he was sleeping.

Kejriwal said government should look into the 22 points on which there are disagreements and say which ones are acceptable.

Who should rule Lok pal or corruption?

I consider myself a “common man” who use to believe that if I had to get my work done, I have to pay bribe! Such is our Indian government and system is corrupt. I was in Delhi till one year back and then moved to United States for work, but I know very well, that at heart, I am an Indian with all the plans to return home soon for good. When I see differences between America and India, one thing pinches me, being Indian, that how corrupt our mentality has gone. Even to get a driving license, we need an agent! Why? Because traffic police department will not treat you well if you directly took your application to them without any “extra fees”. Same is the case for passports and other government office related works. Police/Customs/Revenue/local authorities/every government department. Such shameless have become our government agencies and most of the government employees who consider “chaay paani” as their birth right. Bloody shameless corrupt bastards they are (Sorry, I could not help myself). I literally feel like spitting on faces of these creatures whenever I have encountered them at airports or government offices. They don’t even let the “makkhi” on their faces to fly and ignore us as if they are “highly obligating” us by doing their work for which we pay out of our pockets (their direct salary and indirect chaay paani too). 

Why are most of the government “servants”/beaurocrats are so corrupt? Why do they want “chaay paani” for doing their own work for which government and indirectly you and me pay thru our taxes? The reason is politicians. These bastard politicians (sorry again!) allow them and encourage them to gather money for them. Politicians, to me, look as root cause for this cancer of corruption. And I dare to challenge, 99% of politicians are corrupt asshole. There is no doubt about it. I don’t understand from where these assholes get their Pageros, BMW’s and Landcruisers when their official salaries are Rs. 40,000 a month. Especially when I earned more than Rs. 40,000 a month and work for more than 10 hours a day but could afford only a Santro in that salary! 

How did A. Raja dared to fool Indian laws to help Tatas, Amabanis and other corporates make thousands of crores keeping government at losing end? Because he knew that he would get away with no Indian laws against corruption. Just imagine the money that government lose on telecom spectrum scam could have been used to make infrastructure better which would have helped India progress a bit. But all I can see is all politicians and ministers are busy making money for themselves. Let India and common man, the Indian, go to hell! Same is the case with corporate. Did you see any corporate honcho like Tatas/Ambanis/Birlas/Jindals supporting Anna Hazare in past two days against corruption? No. Why? These are the same bastards who are busy looting common man and India from both sides, by manipulating government policies to make money and by manipulating stock markets to again make money. 

It is a high time for us, as a citizen of India, to awake and fight against cancer of corruption. As a beginning from my home, I am starting with this post to express my feelings and let all my thousands of fellow investors who read IndianStocksNews.com regularly, know that I suggest everyone of us to start fighting against corruption, support Jan Lok Pal bill and Anna Hazare’s efforts to get it in place whichever way you can. You can join demonstrations in your city, nearest city to show the government playing games against this bill for past 40 years to avoid it, the power of common man! After all, government and all politicians are “Janata ke sevak” who has forgotten it completely and that common man is the owner of this country and not any Manmohan Singh or LK Advani or Lalwaa or Jaylalita. Neither Sonia Gandhi nor Rahul Gandhi and second generation of any politician who think they have birthright to rule on common man. 

If you are an government employee, reading this and considers “chaay paani” as your birth right, don’t be shameless to ruin this country. Your child may spit on your face tomorrow for spreading corruption and being part of the bastard’s brigade

What is Corruption Perception Index(CPI)

The Corruption Perceptions Index has drawn increasing criticism in the decade since its launch, leading to calls for the index to be abandoned. This criticism has been directed at the quality of the Index itself, and the lack of actionable insights created from a simple country ranking. Because corruption is willfully hidden, it is impossible to measure directly; instead proxies for corruption are used. The CPI uses an eclectic mix of third-party surveys to sample public perceptions of corruption through a variety of questions, ranging from "Do you trust the government?" to "Is corruption a big problem in your country?"

The use of third-party survey data is a source of criticism. The data can vary widely in methodology and completeness from country to country. The methodology of the Index itself changes from year to year, thus making even basic better-or-worse comparisons difficult. Media outlets, meanwhile, frequently use the raw numbers as a yardstick for government performance, without clarifying what the numbers mean.

The lack of standardization and precision in these surveys is cause for concern. The authors of the CPI argue that averaging enough survey data will solve this; others argue that aggregating imprecise data only masks these flaws without addressing them. In one case, a local Transparency International chapter disowned the index results after a change in methodology caused a country's scores to increase—media reported it as an "improvement". Other critics point out that definitional problems with the term "corruption" makes the tool problematic for social science.

Aside from precision issues, a more fundamental critique is aimed at the uses of the Index. Critics are quick to concede that the CPI has been instrumental in creating awareness and stimulating debate about corruption.[not in citation given] However, as a source of quantitative data in a field hungry for international datasets, the CPI can take on a life of its own, appearing in cross-country and year-to-year comparisons that the CPI authors themselves admit are not justified by their methodology. The authors state in 2008: "Year-to-year changes in a country's score can either result from a changed perception of a country's performance or from a change in the CPI’s sample and methodology. The only reliable way to compare a country’s score over time is to go back to individual survey sources, each of which can reflect a change in assessment." 

The CPI produces a single score per country, which as noted above, cannot be compared year-to-year. As such, the Index is nearly useless as a tool for evaluating the impact of new policies. In the late 2000s, the field has moved towards unpackable, action-oriented indices (such as those by the International Budget Partnership or Global Integrity), which typically measure public policies that relate to corruption, rather than try to assess "corruption" as a whole via proxy measures like perceptions. These alternative measures use original (often locally collected) data and so have the same non-comparability problem as the CPI and are limited in scope to specific policy practices (such as public access to parliamentary budget documents) and so they are only an indicator of visible corruption/policy corruption.

The inherent value-ladeness of any definition of what represents a corrupt policy is also a concern for the CPI or any other measure corruption. For example, any measure must weight the extent to which corruption has a negative impact on citizens of that country. Measures can focus on the extent to which corruption negatively impacts citizens' lives on many dimensions including quality of life, health, economic well-being and liberty. Therefore, current measures have also been criticized not just for their methodology but for their breadth and the value choices that are required to be made in deciding how to weight the importance of various aspects of corruption.

Fasting for Lok Jan Pal bill pass

On 16 Aug, Anna Hazare was taken into preventive custody by Delhi Police. Senior officers of Delhi Police reached Anna Hazare's flat early in the morning and informed him that he could not leave his home. However, Hazare turned down the request following which he was detained.Anna in his recorded address to the nation before his arrest asked his supporters not to stop the agitation and urged the protesters to remain peaceful.Other members of "India Against Corruption", Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia were also taken into preventive custody. Kiran Bedi described the situation as resembling a kind of Emergency (referring to the Emergency imposed in 1975 by the Indira Gandhi Govt.).

The arrest resulted in huge public outcry and under pressure the government released him in the evening of 16 Aug. However, Anna Hazare refused to come out of Jail, starting his indefinite fast from Jail itself. Manish Sisodia explained his situation as, "Anna said that he left home to go to JP Park to conduct his fast and that is exactly where he would go from here (Tihar Jail). He has refused to be released till he is given a written, unconditional permission". Unwilling to use forces owing to the sensitive nature of the case, the jail authorities had no option but to let Anna spend the night inside Tihar. Later on 17 Aug, Delhi Police permitted Anna Hazare and team to use the Ramlila Maidan for the proposed fast and agitation withdrawing most of the contentious provisions they had imposed earlier. The indefinite fast and agitation began in Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi, and is on till today for 14 days. Some of the Lokpal drafting committee members became dissatisfied with Hazare's tactics as the hunger strike went on for the 11 th day: Santosh Hegde, a member of Hazare team who headed the Karnataka Lokayukta, strongly criticised Hazare for his insistence of "having his way", concluding “I feel I am not in Team Anna any more by the way things are going. These (telling Parliament what to do) are not democratic things.”Swami Agnivesh, another central figure in the Harare group also distanced himself

Yet Another Quake in Japan

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Japan late last Thursday(04/07/2011), and on Monday(04/11/2011), another powerful earthquake struck northeastern Japan. The events come just a month after the area was hit by a monster quake and tsunami, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The USGS initially reported that Monday's quake registered 7.1-magnitude, but later lowered the magnitude to 6.6.

A tsunami warning issued by Japan's Meteorological Agency was canceled.

The quake's epicenter was about 101 miles northeast of Tokyo and about 50 miles south of Fukushima, where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was crippled by a 9-magnitude temblor March 11, the USGS said.

Workers at the plant were asked to evacuate, CNN said.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said power was knocked out for about 220,000 households and businesses in Fukushima after Monday's earthquake.

The quake came as Japanese officials said they were considering extending the evacuation zone around the nuclear plant because of radiation concerns, the BBC said. The 12-mile zone would be widened to include five communities beyond the current boundary, based on new data about accumulated radiation levels, officials said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the new evacuations would occur in the next month.

"There is no need to evacuate immediately," he said during a news conference.

Japan's monthlong atomic crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant is far from being stabilized but Edano Monday gave an optimistic assessment.

As the critical work of containing radiation leaks and keeping the reactors from overheating continued at the Daiichi plant, with remote-controlled machinery doing some of the radioactive debris clearing, Edano told reporters there was a lesser risk now of massive radiation emission than there was a month ago.

"The risk that the situation will worsen and that there would be new massive emissions of radioactive materials is becoming considerably smaller," Kyodo News quoted Edano as saying.

The nuclear crisis, among the worst in history, was set off 1 by the March 11 earthquake, Japan's strongest, followed by a 30-foot tall Pacific Ocean tsunami that also devastated much of northeast Japan, killing thousands of people and leaving thousands of others missing, and inflicting economic damage already running into the hundreds of billions of dollars at a time when the country was only beginning a slow economic recovery after years of a deflationary slump.

At the six-reactor plant, Tokyo Electric used a drone chopper to take pictures of the damaged Nos. 1, 3 and 4 reactors and their pools holding spent fuel rods, which must be kept cool to prevent a meltdown, even as other robotic machinery helped remove the radioactive materials.

Workers also are channeling some of the 60,000 tons of radioactive water in the basements of the reactors into holding pits.

Plant workers also have been pumping inert nitrogen gas into the No. 1 reactor to prevent a hydrogen explosion, while at the same time battling high-level radioactive water flooding the basements of some of the other reactors.

The utility has been dumping low-level radioactive water from a nuclear waste disposal facility into the Pacific Ocean -- a process described as unavoidable -- to create more storage room for the high-level contaminated water, which otherwise would overflow and interfere with other critical restoration work.

The process has raised serious concerns abroad about marine life contamination and the Japanese fishing industry, already hit by the March 11 disaster, strongly protested the utility's action and criticized the government.

A 7.1-magnitude aftershock hit the northeast region Thursday but didn't appear to have caused any further damage to the Fukushima plant. The aftershock spilled some radioactive water at another plant in neighboring Miyagi prefecture.

On Monday, Tokyo Electric Power President Masataka Shimizu visited the Fukushima prefectural government office to apologize for the disaster, but Kyodo News quoted officials as saying prefectural Gov. Yuhei Sato again declined to meet him.

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said smaller businesses were encountering problems raising operating capital since the disaster. He expressed concern as the central bank released its quarterly report on the country's regional economies.

About Anna Hazare

1. Who is Anna Hazare?
An ex-army man. Fought 1965 Indo-Pak War

2. What's so special about him?
He built a village Ralegaon Siddhi in Ahamad Nagar district, Maharashtra

3. So what?
This village is a self-sustained model village. Energy is produced in the village itself from solar power, biofuel and wind mills.
In 1975, it used to be a poverty clad village. Now it is one of the richest village in India. It has become a model for self-sustained, eco-friendly & harmonic village.
 
4. Ok,...?
This guy, Anna Hazare was awarded Padma Bhushan and is a known figure for his social activities.
 
5. Really, what is he fighting for?
He is supporting a cause, the amendment of a law to curb corruption in India.

6. How that can be possible?
He is advocating for a Bil, The Lok Pal Bill (The Citizen Ombudsman Bill), that will form an autonomous authority who will make politicians (ministers), beurocrats (IAS/IPS) accountable for their deeds.

8. It's an entirely new thing right..?
In 1972, the bill was proposed by then Law minister Mr. Shanti Bhushan. Since then it has been neglected by the politicians and some are trying to change the bill to suit thier theft (corruption).

7. Oh.. He is going on a hunger strike for that whole thing of passing a Bill ! How can that be possible in such a short span of time?
The first thing he is asking for is: the government should come forward and announce that the bill is going to be passed.
Next, they make a joint committee to DRAFT the LOK PAL BILL. 50% goverment participation and 50% public participation. Because you cant trust the government entirely for making such a bill which does not suit them.

8. Fine, What will happen when this bill is passed?
A LokPal will be appointed at the centre. He will have an autonomous charge, say like the Election Commission of India. In each and every state, Lokayukta will be appointed. The job is to bring all alleged party to trial in case of corruptions within 1 year. Within 2 years, the guilty will be punished. Not like, Bofors scam or Bhopal Gas Tragedy case, that has been going for last 25 years without any result.

9. Is he alone? Whoelse is there in the fight with Anna Hazare?
Baba Ramdev, Ex. IPS Kiran Bedi, Social Activist Swami Agnivesh, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and many more.
Prominent personalities like Aamir Khan is supporting his cause.

10. Ok, got it. What can I do?
At least we can spread the message. How?
Putting status message, links, video, changing profile pics.
At least we can support Anna Hazare and the cause for uprooting corruption from India.
At least we can hope that his Hunger Strike does not go in vain.
At least we can pray for his good health. 

Lok Jan Pal: Lets think to make a change in politics.

Anna Hazare, a 73-year-old Gandhian, sits in the burning sun fasting, and he will stay until death -- unless the government agrees to consider a powerful law that could rid Indian politics of the scourge of corruption.

He is the Modern Mahatma is taking the utmost act of courage and determination to push through a bill that would give an independent body the power to punish corruption -- even in the Prime Minister's office. Across the country a movement has exploded, and a media storm of pressure has been sparked that's engulfing Singh. But dirty politicians are desperately trying to water down or kill the law.

For the first time in forty three years, we have the chance to change the way politics is done. Let's join together and stand with Anna Hazare to tackle corruption and clean up Indian politics. We have no time to lose -- sign the petition to Prime Minister Singh and send this on to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_anna_hazare/97.php?cl_tta_sign=570600704903193fa3850a556e1f8423

Hazare is championing a citizen-developed bill called Jan Lokpal that will create an independent body, selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities, with enough power to investigate and punish all politicians. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence its investigations.

Since 1968, when this bill was first introduced, greedy politicians have thwarted its passing. Now the government is pushing for a watered down Lokpal with no hope of ending fraud, vice and dishonesty -- it gives politicians overriding power to decide who will be investigated, and is a complete eyewash.

Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Singh to endorse the "Jan" Lokpal. Members of the opposition party have begun to make the right noises in support of Anna Hazare. And even the National Advisory Council, a powerful advisory body to Sonia Gandhi have come out in favour of the bill. But corrupt politicians and vested interests are doing all they can to kill it.

Anna Hazare has set the example. But only a national citizens movement can ramp up the pressure to get Singh to endorse Jan Lokpal and save Hazare's life. Sign the petition and forward it to everyone now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_anna_hazare/97.php?cl_tta_sign=570600704903193fa3850a556e1f8423

Corruption in politics has become a plague across our country, it is draining our resources and demoralizing our nation. This bill would go a long way to deterring those that steal and undermine the public good. Last year, the Avaaz community in Brazil won an important victory -- against the odds millions of people came together and pushed through a historic anti-corruption law. India has a proud history of people power overcoming oppression -- today if we all stand with one voice we can fight this corruption that is poisoning our political system.

With hope,

Originally forwarded by--
Saloni, Shibayan, Ricken, Ben and the whole Avaaz team.

More information:

India Today, "Lokpal vs Jan Lokpal: A study in contrast":
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/134429/latest-headlines/lokpal-vs-jan-lokpal-a-study-in-contrast.html

The Hindu Business Line, "Anna Hazare on fast-unto-death demanding Jan Lokpal Bill":
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/article1602555.ece

Times of India, "On day Anna Hazare begins fast, NAC too calls for lokpal debate":
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/On-day-Anna-Hazare-begins-fast-NAC-too-calls-for-lokpal-debate/articleshow/7880511.cms

Tehelka, "Social activists come together to show flaws in Lokpal Bill":
http://tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws050411ACTIVISM.asp

Anna Hazare's fast against corruption strikes huge chord
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/anna-hazares-fast-against-corruption-strikes-huge-chord-96593