Aruna Roy briefs Rahul Gandhi on grievance bill-Aug 24, 2011

Aruna Roy briefs Rahul Gandhi on grievance bill(THIS ALL ASPECT IS ALREADY THERE IN MY SUGGESTIONS ABOUT LOKPAL BILL...VT)

Nitin Sethi, TNN Aug 24, 2011, 12.29am IST


NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi stepped in to take charge in a time of crisis with National Advisory Council member and vocal critic of the Jan Lokpal Bill, Aruna Roy, meeting the Congress general secretary on Monday to brief him on their proposal on the Grievance Redressal Bill.

Sources told TOI that Aruna Roy was accompanied by Nikhil Dey, her associate and convenor of National Campaign for People's Right to Information, at the meeting.

The civil society duo swiftly followed up on the meeting with Rahul Gandhi with another round with Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.




When contacted, Nikhil Dey denied a direct meeting with the Congress scion as well as the rural development minister. He said that the two had only delivered detailed documents on the bill to Rahul Gandhi's office on Monday. But he did confirm that they had been touch with other cabinet ministers such as Pranab Mukherjee and Salman Khurshid on the bill and that they had interacted with Rahul Gandhi earlier on the issue as they had been pursuing such a proposal for a long time.

By Monday evening, Ramesh announced to the media that he had been tasked by the government to draft a Grievance Redressal Bill, which would compliment the Lokpal Bill by including grievances redress mechanism against lower level bureaucracy across the country. The bill, sources suggested, is likely to be put out in 10-15 days with a two-tier system at blocks and districts to redress against any non-delivery of services that governments are bound to provide.

Though Rahul Gandhi and his team has been briefed even previously by key NAC members on issues of social sector reforms, the civil society members have reached out to Sonia Gandhi to discuss concerns on their agenda on occasions. In her absence the stepping in of Rahul Gandhi indicates playing a critical role as a bridge for the party with voices of the civil society that have not aligned with the Team Anna protests.

Aruna Roy has said on several recent occasions that her stance against Team Anna's proposals do not stem from her membership of the NAC. The council had stopped discussing the Lokpal bill in April once Team Anna launched its campaign under a banner bringing other actors like Baba Ramdev with Anna Hazare.

Aruna Roy has been upfront in her disagreements with Team Anna's Jan Lokpal bill calling it 'ill advised'.

Roy and Dey's working closely with the government also suggested a further rift in the civil society on the bill though the differences between Team Anna and some key members of the NAC has been out in the open. The NCPRI has been called to submit its views to the parliamentary standing committee on September 1.