Mumbai, Dec 31 (IANS): In order to have bitter critic Trinamool Congress on board when the Lokpal Bill is taken up again in the Budget Session of Parliament, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday expressed the government's willingness to revisit a Lokpal Bill provision that makes it mandatory for State governments to create an anti-graft ombudsman on the Central government model.
"We can refine and redraft that clause. In order to accommodate the TMC (Trinamool Congress) we may have to, I say may, redraft and redefine that one clause. In order to muster the majority in the Rajya Sabha we may, again underline may, accept one or two amendments," Chidambaram told reporters here.
He said the Bill has not been defeated in the Rajya Sabha after a midnight fiasco in the Upper House on Thursday. "It will be the same Bill with possibly one or two amendments (that will be brought in the Budget session)," said the Home Minister. He said the government will in no case accept the 187 amendments, proposed by opposition MPs, because that would make the Lokpal legislation "an unrecognisable Bill".
He said it was only prudent for the government to let the debate on the Lokpal remain inconclusive in the Rajya Sabha so that it can be taken up in the budget session.
