Kejriwal tables Jan Lokpal Bill in Delhi Assembly

NEW DELHI: Defying Lt Governor’s advice, the AAP Government on Friday tabled the Jan Lokpal Bill in Delhi Assembly amidst stiff protests from BJP and Congress members triggering an uproar and forcing adjournment of the House.

Amidst chaos following opposition demands for voting on the LG’s advice to the Assembly against introduction of the Bill without following constitutional procedures, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal got up to say he was tabling the Bill.

Trouble broke out immediately with BJP and Congress members opposing the government’s move and shouted slogans saying the government cannot violate the Constitution.

As shouting and counter shouting continued, Speaker M S Dhir announced that he was allowing tabling of the Bill and wanted discussion at the introduction stage.

However, the opposition members rushed to the well protesting against the Speaker’s decision resulting in chaos and forcing the Chair to adjourn the House for 20 minutes, the second in the afternoon. - PTI

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Delhi Govt to table Jan Lokpal Bill today

Kejriwal threatens to tender resignation if the Opposition doesn't support it
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 13
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today announced to present the contentious anti-corruption Bill in the Delhi Assembly tomorrow, saying he would resign if the Opposition did not support the Bill.

Addressing a press conference after attending the first day of the special session of the Delhi Assembly, Kejriwal said the copies of the Bill had been distributed to the legislators and it would be tabled in the House tomorrow.

The four-day Assembly session, which began today, has been called by the Delhi Government to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill and the Swaraj Bill. While, the anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill will be bought in the House tomorrow, the Swaraj Bill, giving power to mohalla sabhas, will be tabled on Saturday.

On the extreme chaos that marked the Delhi Assembly session today, Kejriwal said the collusion between the BJP and the Congress was exposed today. "It was match-fixing between the BJP and the Congress for the first time in the history," said Kejriwal.

The Chief Minister said the two parties were opposing the government decision to file an FIR against Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and therefore disrupted the proceedings of the House.

Ruckus prevailed in the Assembly session over the demand of resignation of Law Minister Somnath Bharti for his alleged manhandling of some African women during a raid last month. Protesting BJP MLAs climbed onto the tables of the Speaker and Kejriwal and tore their files. They did not let the Speaker convene the House and broke his mike during the commotion. BJP MLA RP Singh heckled Bharti and threw bangles and lipstick on his table.

Swaraj Bill

New Delhi: The Delhi cabinet on Thursday cleared the Swaraj Bill, which intends to devolve power directly on the people to curb corruption at the local level. A detailed discussion on the Swaraj Bill was also held in Wednesday's cabinet meeting. Touted as a measure for achieving true "self-rule", the Bill provides for decentralisation of power by setting up mohalla sabhas at ward level. — PTI

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Jan Lokpal Bill not to be tabled in Delhi Assembly today

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party government is unlikely to table the anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill on the first day of the Assembly session beginning today.

"The Bill will not be tabled today. It will be circulated among the members and may be tabled tomorrow," government sources said.

They said as per laid down procedure voting for introduction of the Bill is likely to take place in the Assembly tomorrow and if Congress and BJP vote against it, then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may quit.

Going for a confrontation with the Centre, the AAP government has already declared that it was going ahead with tabling of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly even if Union Law Ministry's opined that Centre's prior approval was required.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been maintaining that there is no need to obtain prior approval from the Centre, while BJP and Congress are of the view that clearance was necessary under Transaction of Business Rules (TBR), 2002.

Both Congress and BJP held the government's move as "unconstitutional", saying laid down procedures will have to be followed.

On Sunday, Kejriwal had threatened to resign if the Bill was not passed by the state Assembly due to lack of support from other parties.

Last night, the Union Law Ministry had held that the rules governing Delhi government's legislative business were constitutional where Centre's consent was required before its passage. Lt Governor Najeeb Jung on Monday had sought Law Ministry's view on the vexed issue.

The Law Ministry has held that the Transaction of Business Rules (TBR) make it mandatory that the Lt Governor refer to the Centre every legislative proposal which may necessitate additional financial assistance.

The four-day session of the Assembly is being convened to pass the Jan Lokpal and Swaraj Bills. The AAP government has announced plans to hold the last day of the session at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium despite objection to the move by the Lt Governor. — PTI

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ACB files FIR, names Moily, Ambani, Deora

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 12
RIL chief Mukesh Ambani, Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily, former Union Minister Murli Deora and retired Director General of Hydrocarbons V K Sibal were today named in an FIR by Anti-Corruption Branch of Delhi Government in the Reliance gas issue.

The FIR was registered after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said yesterday that the agency had been told to probe their alleged collusion over hike in prices of natural gas from KG basin. Arvind Kejriwal today wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to hold back the decision of increasing gas price till the investigation in the matter was over. Besides, the ministries should be asked to cooperate with the investigative team, he demanded.

The ACB lodged a criminal case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the government officials, all four names have been mentioned in the FIR. Kejriwal had yesterday alleged active collusion between the Reliance Infra Limited (RIL) and some ministers of the Central government after receiving a complaint filed by former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramaniam, former Navy chief Admiral RH Tahiliani, former Union Secretary EAS Sarma and noted Supreme Court lawyer Kamini Jaiswal.

In the letter, Kejriwal requested the Prime Minister to cancel the gas blocks allocated to the RIL for creating artificial scarcity of gas in the country leading to hike in its prices. “The gas lobby has bribed both the Congress and the opposition parties,” said Kejriwal. He alleged that if Reliance Industries was allowed to hike the prices from April 1, it will enjoy a bonanza of Rs 54,000 crore.

AAP to table Jan Lokpal Bill today

• The Arvind Kejriwal government on Wednesday declared it was going ahead with tabling of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly on Thursday, ignoring the Union Law Ministry's view that the Centre's prior approval was required
• The hardening of the AAP government's stand came even as the Congress and the BJP held the move by the ruling dispensation as "unconstitutional"
• "There is no rethinking in our position. We are going ahead with tabling of the Jan Lokpal Bill," a senior government official said.

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Now, AAP targets Modi on gas pricing

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 12 After targeting the Congress and the Ambanis over the natural gas pricing issue, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today trained its guns on the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, accusing them of extending benefits to the Ambanis and the Adani group in power bids.

AAP’s political affairs committee met this evening here to discuss on some of the crucial parliamentary seats.

Attacking the Gujarat Government, AAP national executive member Sanjay Singh said, “The BJP should clarify its stand on the natural gas pricing. But it will never speak about it, as it has done on many instances. For example, Purushottam Solanki was found guilty in Rs 400 cr scam by the Gujarat High Court, but the govt shields him.”

“Even the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had last year found irregularities to the tune of Rs26,672 crore in the Modi government in the last nine years. Modi has sold entire Gujarat to Adani and Ambanis. Tata Nano too has been given a soft loan for 20 years," Singh said.

Singh said the party has received nearly 12,000 nominations for 425 Lok Sabha seats. The first list of 25 seats is expected to be declared tomorrow, including Ludhiana where 1984 anti-Sikh massacre crusader HS Phoolka is likely to contest, Amethi for which Kumar Vishwas's name is near final. For Haryana, a total of 70 aspirants had applied and interviews were held today here.

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Keep politics aside

Gas price issue needs a fresh look

TAKING the anti-corruption battle a step further, the irrepressible Arvind Kejriwal has ordered an FIR against Reliance, Union minister Veerappa Moily, former Oil Minister Murli Deora and a former oil regulator, V.K. Sibal, on a complaint by four distinguished citizens who have alleged underproduction from Reliance's oil well, KG-D6, and over-pricing of natural gas. Public interest is involved here since from April this year costlier gas will push up the cost of transport, electricity and fertilisers. As elections are around the corner, the Central and state governments may protect the consumers and take on the additional burden. A condescending Moily responded with the remark "I should sympathise with his (Kejriwal's) ignorance". He should realise the complaint is by persons who have served the system and know how it operates. The CAG too has pointed to losses caused to the exchequer.

One allegation is Mukesh Ambani's company had created an artificial shortage to blackmail the government to set higher prices. Reliance had agreed to supply gas to NTPC at $2.3 per mBtu for 17 years. But the price was almost doubled in 2007 when Murli Deora was the Oil Minister. After Moily became the Oil Minister last year, the government moved to market-linked gas pricing and cleared the hike, based on a report of the Rangarajan committee.

The Aam Aadmi Party has questioned the BJP silence on the issue. Both the Congress and the BJP are on the same page in opposing AAP's volatile move. There are key issues that need to be addressed. Since the Supreme Court is seized of the matter of gas pricing on a PIL petition, should the issue of criminal collusion, if any, be delinked? Can Delhi's Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is under the Centre, investigate a Union minister when even the CBI needs prior permission to proceed against a top public servant? There are suspicions in public mind about undue benefits being given to the company. A Supreme Court-monitored inquiry would have, perhaps, handled the case better.

Source Link: http://www.tribuneindia.com

Reliance threatens to sue AAP, says FIR against Mukesh Ambani 'shocking'

The RIL refuted the charges made by Kejriwal against it and described the FIR registered against its chairman Mukesh Ambani as "shocking."

NEW DELHI: The Reliance Industries Limited on Tuesday threatened to sue the Aam Aadmi Party government over its allegations of gas pricing, the Economic Times reports.

In a statement the company said, "The complaint and each of the allegations on the basis of which the Delhi government has taken such action are completely baseless and devoid of any merit or substance whatsoever. We deny these irresponsible allegations and propose to resort to the available legal remedies to protect our reputation and preserve the pioneering efforts and investments made by Reliance so far."

The RIL refuted the charges made by Kejriwal against it and described the FIR registered against its chairman Mukesh Ambani as "shocking."

The RIL said in a statement, "The direction of the Delhi Government to order the registration of an FIR in relation to the decision of Union Cabinet to revise the price of gas is indeed shocking. The complaint and each of the allegations on the basis of which the Delhi Government has taken such action are completely baseless and devoid of any merit or substance whatsoever."

"We deny these irresponsible allegations and propose to resort to the available legal remedies to protect our reputation and preserve the pioneering efforts and investment made by Reliance so far. We also remain fully committed to the development of oil and gas sector in India within the parameters of law," the statement added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Delhi Government directed the Anti-Corruption Branch to register an FIR against the chairperson of Reliance Industries Limited Mukesh Ambani, union petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily, former petroleum minister Murli Deora and former director general of Hydrocarbons VK Sibal under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Kejriwal described the details mentioned in the complaint received by the Delhi Government as shocking, and which were an assault on India's economic sovereignty and amounted to an anti-national activity.

The decision to order a probe was taken by the Delhi Ggovernment after the perusal of a common complaint filed by eminent citizens - former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramaniam, former Navy chief Admiral RH Tahiliani, former secretary to government of India EAS Sarma and noted Supreme Court lawyer Kamini Jaiswal.

Acting on a complaint filed by eminent citizens - former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramaniam, former Navy chief Admiral RH Tahiliani, former secretary to government of India EAS Sarma and noted Supreme Court lawyer Kamini Jaiswal which states that gas prices in the country will be doubled from April 1 this year due to the alleged active collusion between the RIL and some ministers of the central government. In case this price hike is allowed to take place, it will make the life of common man miserable since it will have a cascading effect on transport, domestic gas and even electricity prices.

The impact of this hike in gas price would cost the country a minimum of Rs 54,500 crore every year, and in addition to this the central government allowed the RIL to make a future windfall profit of Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

Kejriwal has demanded that the central government should put its decision to hike the prices of gas in abeyance till the time the probe into the matter is completed. (With inputs from agencies)

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