‘State fund for election is possible’, says Moily

NEW DELHI - Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Saturday said that his ministry has a proposal on state funding of election and plans to go for a national consultation on it.

Moily told reporters in New Delhi that the national consultations on the proposal would be held in April.

“In fact some proposal is ready; in fact it was ready to even go to the cabinet. But, I withheld it because, I have told Prime Minister that we can take it up after national consultation which is likely to be held on April 2 and April 3 on comprehensive electorate,” Moily said.

He also said that a designated Group of Ministers (GoM) was to consider whether in order to fight corruption, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh should come under the purview of ombudsman.

Moily said a decision was slated to be taken in a couple of months.

“We have to discuss and we are reflecting on that in the GoM, and in GoM it is the main subject. There are another four subjects on particularly to combat corruption in the country. So, we are seriously discussing, we have been given a mandate to give the report within 60 days, so that’s the way we will do it,” he said.

A GoM headed by federal Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is presently looking into ways to eradicate corruption under the ruling United Progressive Alliance rule.

It has started reviewing the Lokpal Bill and hopes to bring it before the parliament at the earliest.

The Lok Pal is synonymous to the institution of Ombudsman existing in the Scandinavian countries.

The Lok Pal bill would enable citizens to sue even the Prime Minister for corruption.

Successive governments have tabled the Bill in the lower house of Parliament on seven occasions since 1969, but it lapsed every time for different reasons.

Since the last few months, the Congress-led ruling coalition government has come under intense public and political scrutiny for not initiating prompt and stringent measures to quell the financial mismanagement rampant in the system. (ANI)