New Delhi. While the Jan Lokpal Bill is aimed at removing corruption from the “high levels” by making sure that politicians and bureaucrats are punished for their corrupt practices, a new bill has been proposed that would remove corruption from the “low levels” i.e. amidst the common citizens and the “civil society”. The bill, tentatively named “Janta Lokpal Bill”, would accomplish the feat by legalizing low level corruption.
“While everyone wants to see a corrupt politician hanged till death, we realized that a common person was not yet willing to pay even a paltry fine for indulging in something illegal like evading taxes,” Nishant Bhushan, a lawyer and a member of the drafting committee of the Janta Lokpal Bill, said, “After a lot of debate and discussions, we thought that legalizing low level corruption was the best solution.”
Instances of payment to secure out of turn favors would be made legal and declared as a “familiarity fee” payable between mutually consenting parties
The new bill proposes that all instances of “low level corruption” should be given a legal sanction so that the common citizens and the civil society of India have a “free and clear conscience” on the issue of corruption. If the bill becomes a low, an office of a “Janta Lokpal” would be created in each Indian city, which would issue various “certificates” to people found indulged in practices that are currently deemed as corrupt.
“If a person is found to have tampered with his electricity meter and indulged in electricity theft, no FIR would be lodged against him/her. The person would be required by the law to pay a little fee to the Janta Lokpal and he would be awarded a certificate in electrical engineering, preferably sponsored by a company like GE,” Nishant Bhushan informed.
Apart from “fees” paid by the common citizens, the government would also earn revenues from sponsorship deals with various companies; a proposal due to which Nishant Bhushan believes that the government would be willing to pass the bill in the next session of the parliament.
In fact, the bill also empowers the Janta Lokpal to issue “character certificates” to people who are caught harassing women in public places, hence extending the ambit of the bill to “moral corruption” as well, hence making sure that a common citizen is free of all forms of corruption.
“Along with the Jan Lokpal bill, this bill aims at making every Indian, not just the politicians and the bureaucrats, an honest person, after which the war against corruption would be decisively won,” Nishant Bhushan claimed.
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