New Delhi: The lack of consensus at Wednesday night's all-party meeting notwithstanding, the government Thursday said it was still confident of passing the contentious Lokpal Bill in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said that the government was working hard to bring the Lokpal Bill in the present session and hoped that it would be passed as well.
"I believe that it would be possible. There was an all-party meeting yesterday (Wednesday) where 35 different parties participated. All had different views on the issue. To say there was broad consensus on the issue would be wrong. This has increased the workload of the government," Bansal said.
According to the original schedule, government was to introduce in Bill in both Houses on December 20. The winter session is slated to end on December 21.
"Even if we do it by January 20-21, I don't think why it cannot be done. On one day it can be discussed in one house and on the other day it can be done in the second house," Bansal said.
Failure to evolve broad consensus
The all-party meeting failed to evolve a broad consensus with most of the opposition parties telling the government not to rush through passage of such a crucial legislation, although these parties had been openly supporting the anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare who has threatened to undertake third round of hunger strike starting December 27 if the Parliament failed to pass an effective Lokpal Bill in the winter session of Parliament.
"Our aim is how to find a consensus view from the different views given by the parties. Government has started working now on the issue and its sole effort is to see how we can come up with the bill as soon as possible," he said.
