Corruption hurting inclusive growth

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said inclusive growth cannot be achieved without removing corruption."Governance failures and corruption in the system affect the poor disproportionately. An inclusive development agenda cannot succeed without addressing these issues," Mukherjee said while addressing the CII National Conference and Annual session.

He said the benefits of economic growth are not reaching all sections of society and there is need to address the gaps in the system for overall development."It is evident that the fruits of growing prosperity are not being enjoyed equally by all our citizens. There are gaps in our development efforts and in our governance practices, across sectors and in different regions and segments of the country," Mukherjee added.He said the country's economic development should be more holistic to bring about sustained improvement in living standards, access to affordable healthcare and social security, among other things."It is equally important that the available public resources are effectively used. We are acutely conscious that if these resources have to bear fruit, we have to tackle issues of governance and service delivery," Mukherjee added.

The government has formed a ministerial panel on corruption, headed by Mukherjee, which is deliberating among other things to bring in the Lokpal Bill to tackle corruption. The panel also comprises Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri and Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal.

A JOINT DRAFTING COMMITTEE TO PREPARE DRAFT LOK PAL BILL

GOVERNMENT ISSUES NOTIFICATION TO CONSTITUTE A JOINT DRAFTING COMMITTEE TO PREPARE DRAFT LOK PAL BILL

The Government of India has issued a Notification constituting a Joint Drafting Committee to prepare a draft of the Lok Pal Bill.
The Joint Drafting Committee shall consist of Five nominee Ministers of the Government of India and Five nominees of Shri Anna Hazare (including himself).
The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are as under:-
(i) Shri Pranab Mukherjee,
Union Minister of Finance.
(ii) Shri P. Chidambaram,
Union Minister of Home Affairs.
(iii) Dr Veerappa Moily,
Union Minister of Law and Justice.
(iv) Shri Kapil Sibal,
Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and
Minister of Communication and Information Technology
(v) Shri Salman Khursheed,
Union Minister of Water Resources and
Minister of Minority Affairs
The five nominees of Shri Anna Hazare (including himself) are as under:-
(i) Shri Anna Hazare
(ii) Shri Justice N. Santosh Hedge
(iii) Shri Shanti Bhushan, Senior Advocate
(iv) Shri Prashan Bhushan, Advocate
(v) Shri Arvind Kejriwal.
The Chairperson of the Joint Drafting Committee shall be Shri Pranab Mukherjee.
The Co-Chairperson of the Joint Drafting Committee shall be Shri Shanti Bhushan.
The Convenor of the Join Drafting Committee shall be Dr M. Veerappa Moily.
The Joint Drafting Committee shall commence its work forthwith and evolve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation.
The Joint Drafting Committee shall complete its work latest by 30th June, 2011.

JK Gov for promotion of Gandhian philosophy

Governor N N Vohra on Saturday stressed on the need to promote Gandhian values among youth in the state for establishing peace and tranquility."There is a need for planned initiatives to promote Gandhian values and philosophy to create greater awareness among the younger generation about the Mahatma's teachings of peace, harmony, tolerance, brotherhood, secularism and non-violence," the Governor said while interacting with a 27-member delegation of noted Gandhian workers at Raj Bhavan.Referring to the situation in the state for the past over 20 years, the Governor said that there is a need for strengthening greater unity among the people of all the regions of the state for ensuring a safe and happy future for the coming generations.He said that the message of Gandhiji is more relevant today than ever before for establishing lasting peace and tranquility in the state.
The Governor said that a well considered calendar of activities needs to be formulated for creating awareness about Gandhiji's life and philosophy and the role played by Baba Amte and other Gandhian workers for connecting the hearts of people.