PM, Sonia assert commitment to eradicate corruption

On a day Anna Hazare threatened another hunger strike, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on Tuesday, asserted that the government is committed to a strong Lokpal and other laws to eradicate corruption.

"The Right to Information is helping in bringing in transparency in the work of the government. We want to do more. In the coming days we will enact the Right to Food so that no citizen of our country goes hungry," Singh told over 8,000 Youth Congress office-bearers at a convention here.

He said the government will also take a number of measures to make governance "more effective, transparent and accountable."

These include "legislations for Lokpal, Citizen's Grievance Redressal and Public Procurement", he said.

"In the coming months we will redouble our efforts for ensuring that the fruits of development reach all citizens of our country, and especially those who have been left behind," the Prime Minister said.

Addressing the convention, Gandhi said corruption plagues all sections of the society and together with the Lokpal bill, the government is working on a variety of legislations "which will systematically fight corruption."

Gandhi, who addressed her first public function since undergoing surgery abroad for an undisclosed ailment, hoped the opposition will support the government in passing these important measures.

The assertion to fight corruption came on a day Hazare threatened to go on an indefinite fast in Delhi from December 27 while terming that the draft report by Parliamentary Standing Committee as a "betrayal" of countrymen.