Citizen's Charter be included in Lokpal Bill: Team Anna

Team Anna on Thursday demanded that the Citizen's Charter, specifying a time limit on government departments for providing services, should be included in the Lokpal Bill as it will help the common people to get their work done.

"Citizen's Charter in the Lokpal Bill is a must. It will help people get their work done in a time-bound manner," prominent Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal said.

He said the charter was needed as government employees "deliberately" sit on files to cause delays and extract bribes.

"Citizen's Charter will effectively check this," he said. Inclusion of such a charter was one of the three key demands put forward by Team Anna for Anna Hazare to call off his hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan in August.

Parliament had urged the Standing Committee to consider this demand. However, the draft bill does not provide for a

Citizen's Charter and, instead, the government has prepared a draft Public Grievances Bill. Another activist Kiran Bedi said government's stand was not clear yet on the issue of bringing anti-corruption wing of CBI under Lokpal.

"Anti-corruption wing of CBI must come under an independent Lokpal. (Government's stand is) not clear yet," she said.