Hazare aims to reach out to people over Lokpal Bill

New Delhi, Apr 10 (ANI): A day after the government gave in to his demands for the formulation of the Lokpal Bill, veteran social activist Anna Hazare today said that he plans to travel throughout the country and use technology like SMS to address the concerns of the common man.

"We have to now plan our strategy for drafting of the Lokpal Bill and for that we need to reach out to people. We will travel across the country and use technology like SMS so that their concerns are addressed," said Hazare.

"I have been fighting against corruption for the last 25 years. Corruption has increased so much and no day passes when you don't get to hear any corruption related news. I have given my life for the country and society. So I decided to do something, but never expected it would grow so big," he added.

The 72-year-old Gandhian further said: "I had planned to organise it (the campaign) in Maharashtra but later we shifted to Delhi. I got massive support from people and media since I landed in Delhi and it became so big."

Hazare called off his hunger strike on Saturday after the government issued a gazette notification constituting a 10-member Joint Committee of Ministers and civil society activists, including him, to draft an effective Lokpal Bill.

The notification by the Ministry of Law and Justice said the Joint Drafting Committee to prepare a draft of the Lok Pal Bill will have five ministers from the government and five nominees of Hazare, including himself.

The five Ministers are Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Chairperson, Home Minister P Chidamabaram, Law Minister Veerappa Moily (Convenor), HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid.

The civil society will be represented by Hazare, former Supreme Court judge N Santosh Hegde, former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan (Co-Chairperson), lawyer Prashant Bhushan and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal.

The notification said the Joint Drafting Committee will commence work forthwith evolving its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation. The committee shall complete its work latest by June 30. (ANI)