Our Correspondent / New Delhi
The Rajya Sabha today passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 by a voice vote. The bill seeks to make giving bribes to a public servant an offence and there is a provision of punishment in such act.
The Bill introduces the offence of giving a bribe as a direct offence. However, a person who is compelled to give a bribe will not be charged with the offence if he reports the matter to law enforcement authorities within seven days.
Replying to a debate on the bill in the House, Minister for Personnel and Public Grievances said, the legislation against the corruption has been made wide based. He said, the bill has been brought in the House after it was deliberated in the Standing Committee, Law Commission and finally after holding consultations in the Select Committee.
He said, most economic measures brought by the NDA Government are not just economic reforms but also social reforms and reforms in our economic behaviour.
Initiating discussion, Anand Sharma of the Congress questioned the government for not bringing the Whistle Blowers Protection Amendment Bill along with the bill. He wanted to know how many real corrupt people were booked so far in the last four years.
Shwait Mallik of BJP elaborated the steps taken by the Narendra Modi government to curb corruption in the country. He said since the NDA government came to power in 2014, it constituted a Special Investigative Team to unearth black money in the country and so far 70 thousand crore rupees black money was unearthed.
He said the note ban in 2016 has helped in weeding out the parallel economy in the country and stopped terror funding. Mr Malik said, opening of Jan Dhan accounts has prevented diversion of funds given to beneficiaries under different schemes resulting in weeding out middlemen.
Ravi Prakash Verma of Samajwadi Party stressed on the need for administrative and judicial reform while dealing with the menace of corruption.
Members from other political parties including AIADMK, CPI and DMK participated in the discussion.