Government is all set to introduce the Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday as Parliament Session has been extended for three days from 27th December to facilitate its passage.
The Bill will be circulated to members before introduction tomorrow after securing the mandatory assent from the President since there was some financial implication in it.
The Government gave up a move to get the bill passed on Friday and stuck to yesterday’s Business Advisory Committee’s decision to go for an extension beyond Christmas.
Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee held a meeting with main opposition BJP today to discuss these issues and convince the party that there was no other option but to extend the winter session by three more days.
After some initial reluctance, the BJP, represented by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley and L K Advani, agreed.
The government will introduce the new Lokpal Bill in Lok Sabha tomorrow and withdraw the existing one which had been introduced in the monsoon session.
The Lok Sabha Business Advisory Committee had agreed yesterday that the winter session will be extended by three days and meet on December 27, 28 and 29.
However, Mukherjee had called up Advani last evening to say that several members were opposed to the extension and wanted the Bill to be passed by working for an additional day on December 23.
With the main opposition agreeing today to the government demand, today’s BAC was cancelled.
This automatically means yesterday’s BAC decision holds good.