Manish Sisodia accuses UPA of fooling people

Ghaziabad/New Delhi, June 9 (ANI): Team Anna member Manish Sisodia has termed the letter written by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to veteran social activist Anna Hazare, ruling out all the demands of the civil society activists as an attempt on part of the government to fool the people fighting against corruption.

The Prime Minister's Office has reportedly written a letter to Hazare rejecting the demand of his team for setting up a Special Investigation Team to probe Dr. Manmohan Singh and other ministers and setting up special fast-track courts for trying MPs accused of corruption.

Sisodia informed that Team Anna had not received any such letter from the PMO.

"We have not received any letter so far. But the kind of reports we are getting from the media, it shows that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has written some letter to Anna Hazareji and us that all the allegations we have made regarding corruption in coal ministry under Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh and other 14 ministers, and issues that we have raised in our letter in the proposed agitation on 25 July," said Sisodia.

"This letter seems to be saying that there is no corruption in government; all the ministers are very neat and clean in government. The people, who are crying against corruption, are foolish. They are talking rubbish. So, I think people can't buy this," he added.

Sisodia further accused the government of coming up with a post-office in the name of an effective Lokpal Bill.

"There is corruption in the government. There is problem of price rise.

Everything is on sale, local resources are being sold at throwaway prices. We can't accept this. On the other hand, the government is trying to prove that they are bringing very effective Lokpal Bill. How can we say this is effective? The kind of Lokpal Bill the government is bringing is simply a post-office, which will redirect the complaints of the citizen to either CBI or CVC. So, are we opening another post-office in the name of Lokpal that is called effective Lokpal Bill?" asked Sisodia.

"On the other hand, the government is saying that all the coal blocks have been sold at throwaway prices considering public interest. Throwing away the things that can generate revenue for the government and then burdening the ordinary people with tax, is it called public interest. So, I don't think the government has really answered anything. They are trying to wash out everything," he added.

The Congress-led UPA Government today rejected Team Anna's demands to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe allegations of corruption against Cabinet ministers and establishing fast-track courts to hear charges against them, saying present system was sufficient to deal with such issues.

Responding to a letter by Anna Hazare to the Prime Minister last month, the PMO said the activist has "not submitted any proof regarding the (corruption) charges" against Manmohan Singh in coal block allocation.

"You have not submitted any proof regarding the charges, instead you have said it is not you who is levelling the charges," said Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy in the letter to Hazare. (ANI)