Walk the talk, Lok Satta tells PM on corruption

The Lok Satta Party expressed its amazement over the Prime Minister of a country of a billion plus people merely voicing concern over the threat posed by corruption instead of initiating stern action against the guilty.

Addressing media, Lok Satta Party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma and Secretary Bhaskara Rao referred to the Prime Minister‘s warning that corruption might derail growth and said the economist-turned Dr. Manmohan Singh should walk the talk and not mouth platitudes.

The Lok Satta Party leaders said that the country would stand to lose heavily if those in authority, notwithstanding their unimpeachable integrity, remained mute spectators to the loot of the nation.

They specifically demanded that the:

• Government constitute an independent, empowered Lok Pal with powers to investigate and prosecute all those in authority ranging from the Prime Minister to the peon in a Government office
  
  
• Frame rules under the Benami Properties Act of 1988 and notify them to ferret out and attach properties acquired in benami names by powerful people
  
  
• Create a National Judicial Commission to appoint judges and act against the guilty
  
  
• Allocate all scarce national resources through competitive bidding and impose a tax on windfall profits, and
  
  
• Ratify the UN Convention against Corruption
  

The Government can curb corruption in three years if it adopted the measures suggested by the Lok Satta, the party leaders said.

They appealed to all parties to transcend their differences and mount a united fight against corruption immediately since the entire nation is exercised over the evil. Agitations by Opposition parties against ruling establishments for gaining political mileage would not serve the nation. Justice Shivraj Patil, who inquired into spectrum allocations, pointed out that irregularities had been committed both during the NDA and the UPA regimes.

They appealed to all parties in Andhra Pradesh to work together and get the Prevention of Corruption Act amended as proposed by Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan.