New Delhi, Sunday, July 03, 2011: Affirming government’s commitment to enact Lokpal Act that will provide for a strong and effective way to tackle corruption in high places, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said such an institution will have to work within the framework of Constitution.

He told the all-party meeting on Lokpal Bill that strong law to tackle corruption were a necessary but these would not suffice as there was a need to focus on “simplifying procedures, reducing discretion, eliminating arbitrariness and increasing transparency in the way government functions.”

Singh noted that there was a feeling that institutional arrangements in place are not strong enough to ensure that the guilty, especially those occupying high positions, are brought to book swiftly and given deterrent punishment.

“I must make it clear at the outset that we, in government, are committed to the enactment of a Lokpal Act, which provides for a strong, effective and quick institutional arrangement for tackling corruption in high places,” he said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

(News Agency)