Anna Hazare

Ralegan Siddhi, Dec 23 - Slamming the new Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare today said the government should involve people in lawmaking and invoked Rajiv Gandhi's name to tell the Congress-led dispensation that he had written to all village heads before coming out with the Panchayati Raj Bill. Hazare questioned as to why the government was drafting the bill alone.

Ghaziabad, Dec 21 - Team Anna today rejected the Lokpal bill describing it as "anti-people and dangerous" and demanded that a new bill be brought in Parliament that will make CBI independent and decentralise the proposed anti-corruption body. Addressing a press conference, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal said the new bill was "worse" than the legislation introduced in August in Lok Sabha alleging that the government does not want a comprehensive anti-graft ombudsman.

Ralegan Siddhi, Dec 21 - Attacking the government for keeping CBI out of Lokpal, Anna Hazare today accused it of "cheating" the people by bringing a weak Bill to "save" corrupt politicians. A day after the Union Cabinet approved the Lokpal Bill leaving CBI out of its purview, Hazare said the ombudsman would not be strong and effective if the premier investigation agency was not kept under it.

Ralegan Siddhi, Dec 20 - Accusing the UPA of ignoring the voice of people, Anna Hazare today said he will go ahead with his fast and 'jail bharo' agitation from December 27, alleging that a "weak" Citizens' Charter Bill showed that government's intentions were not honest on Lokpal Bill. Rejecting the Citizens' Charter Bill, Hazare said the people of the country were cheated by the government and he will go ahead with the plans to campaign against the government in the Assembly elections in five poll-bound states.

Mumbai, Dec 20 - India Against Corruption, the NGO spearheading Anna Hazare's proposed fast here, today expressed shock at the prohibitive cost of hiring the MMRDA ground and asked the Maharashtra government to waive it entirely or allow use of Azad Maidan for the agitation. "We were shocked to find that the average cost per day would come to almost Rs two lakh. We therefore request you to waive the entire charge or allow substantial financial relief," Praful Vora of IAC, said in a letter to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.

New Delhi, Dec 20 - Team Anna today said extension of Winter Session of Parliament will be worth only if a strong Lokpal Bill is brought with CBI out of government control. "Extension will be worth if it is for a strong Lokpal with CBI out of government control and with Lokpal. Everything depends on the content of the bill," activist Kiran Bedi told PTI.

Bangalore, Dec 19 - Software icon and Infosys' founder N R Narayana Murthy today said he was hopeful that the draft of Lokpal bill, expected to be tabled in the Parliament in a day or two, would satisfy all well meaning citizens. "Mr Anna Hazare, his team and the government have been in talks and they are discussing. I am positive that they will come out with something that will satisfy all the well meaning citizens of this country," the Chairman Emeritus of Infosys said here

Mumbai, Dec 19 - Even as the Centre raced against time to prepare an effective Lokpal bill to place it before Parliament, Team Anna today secured permission to use a state government ground for the proposed fast by the anti-graft campaigner from December 27. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has granted permission for using its ground in Bandra-Kurla complex initially for 15 days, a source in Anna Hazare's India Against Corruption, said.

Google and Yahoo, two of the most used search platforms in the country, have named Anna amongst the most popular ‘searched names’ of the year, as they released the search data for India in 2011. While Yahoo’s data suggests that Anna trounced Bollywood star Katrina Kaif and cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, Google’s annual “Zeitgeist” said that the Gandhian is amongst the fastest rising people of 2011 on the internet.