Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Aug 5: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that appointment of two Judicial Members and replacements in the Lokpal body will be taken in due course of time.
In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also Minister Incharge DoPT, informed that the Chairman and the other nine Members had been duly appointed but unfortunately one Judicial Member died due to COVID during the ongoing pandemic while the other Judicial Member tendered his resignation.
Maintaining that Lokpal was first proposed way back in 1963 but was appointment only by the Modi Government, nearly 60 years later, Dr Jitendra Singh, in reply to a starred question, recalled that the suggestion for an Ombudsman-like arrangement was made by late Dr L M Singhvi during a debate in Lok Sabha in 1963. Later on, it was in 1966 that the Administrative Reforms Commission actually recommended the appointment of Lokpal and Lokayukta, he added.
Cryptically, referring to the earlier Governments, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Lokpal Bill was brought to the Parliament exactly 10 times in nearly six decades but it was never carried forward to its logical conclusion, possibly because of the lack of political will or the lack of commitment. Citing the exact chronology, he said, the Bill was introduced in 1968, 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, and twice in 2011 respectively.
It was at the fag end of UPA-2 Government, said Dr Jitendra Singh, that under public pressure the Bill was brought and hurriedly passed in January 2014, but in the haste, several inadequacies and incompletions were left, which came in way of its proper implementation. It was on the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added, that the Bill was brought to the Parliament once again in its amended and complete form, following which the appointment of the Lokpal and other Members was duly made.
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