Law Minister Khurshid calls for consensus on Lokpal Bill

New Delhi, Dec 15 (ANI): Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid has said that efforts are on to ensure consensus on framing a strong Lokpal Bill.

Talking to reporters here, Khurshid emphasized the need to have an effective anti-graft law that would help in the eradication of corruption from the country and added that the federal government was open to suggestions.

"We are taking into account all fruitful suggestions that are coming our way to ensure a strong Ombudsman Bill. We will also try to incorporate all types of suggestions so that a strong bill is enacted. We want a consensus on the Bill and we would try and facilitate an environment for communication with a conclusive approach," Khurshid added.

Earlier, social activist Anna Hazare carried out a l fast in April and August, striking a chord with millions of Indians and forced the government to take adequate steps to create the country's first independent ombudsman who could investigate ministers and bureaucrats.

The government has so far resisted the demand to include the prime minister, judges, lower bureaucracy and the CBI within the ambit of the anti-graft bill.

Meanwhile, defending Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on his proposal for filtering Facebook content, Khurshid said that his intention was not to issue any harmful statements about the social networking website.

"He (Kapil Sibal) did not make any strong objection to Facebook. He was presenting his views and talking about the social networking site. Is talking about something wrong? He just wanted to talk about the contents of the website and seek opinions on it's usage in the Indian context. He did not give issue any harmful statements about the website. I think there is nothing wrong in talking about something," added Khurshid.

India has urged social network companies including Facebook, Twitter and Google to remove offensive material, unleashing a storm of criticism from Internet users complaining of censorship in the world's largest democracy.

Earlier, Sibal met executives from Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to ask them to screen content, but no agreement with the companies was reached.

India's bloggers and Twitter users scorned the minister's proposals, saying a prefiltering system would limit free expression and was impossible to implement. (ANI)