The version 2.3 of Jan Lokpal Bill has expanded its coverage and power beyond what i would not have dreamt of.
Its jurisdiction is now over "PM, Ministers, Elected Representatives, All public servants, Judges of the higher judiciary." [Government's version includes only Group A officers amongst public servants at the centre only and excludes PM in office and Judiciary].
Secondly, it can look at many more complaints, " Definition- a complaint means a complaint alleging that a public servant has indulged in an act of corruption punishable under Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code or under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; which would also include any offence committed by an elected member of a house of legislature even in respect of his speech or vote inside the house." [Government's version is limited to offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988].
As the Lok Pal is supposed to have its own separate wings for investigation and prosecution, it is worth considering the cost of running an effective Lok Pal. [Both Govt and Jan Lokpal are agreed on this formulation].
With 45 million public servants (government employees) and hundreds of judges to be disciplined for any complaint lodged with the Lok Pal (at centre or state), one wonders if the necessary resources required to run the Lok Pal will be provided. I read in the press that in 1972, the original version of Mr Bhushan's version of Lok Pal envisaged an annual expense of Rs. 3.x lacs p.a. and the current version will require a budget of Rs.1,700 crores p.a. (i.e Rs.300K and Rs.17 Billion p.a. respectively). This looks like a gross underestimate and with such meagre resources, the Lok Pal will be no different from the existing organisations which are buried under ridiculous backlogs.
The magnitude of corruption is huge, almost mind boggling. Perhaps it justifies changing the architecture of the government envisaged in the constitution of India. We have three pillars in the government structure - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Having an effective Lok Pal almost means creating four pillars, Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and Lok Pal (Super Referee). The fourth pillar should have a staff strength of 450K persons and with an average salary plus overhead expense of Rs.500K p.a., the annual budget of running an effective Lok Pal is Rs. 225 Billion.
Obviously, the above additional resources cannot be found. So it will mean reshuffling or merging completely the existing resources from police, judiciary, ACB, CBI, CVC into Lok Pal.
So the end result will be that we will have a smart Lok Pal which will reduce corruption in the government but it will be at the cost of higher level or disorder, criminality and increasing back log of cases in the courts in the non-government sectors. This is because Rs.225 Billion would have got carved out of the budgets for the police, CBI and Judiciary.
For reducing corruption, the legislative competence must be improved and the babus who have drafted old set of laws and rules must be replaced and concurrently the old laws and rules should be rewritten in unambiguous language and without the baggage of amendments upon amendments. After formation of Lok Pal, this is the second most urgent step. Accelerating roll out of Judicial reforms in the making, is the third most urgent step. Police reforms are the fourth most important step and electoral reforms are the fifth most important step.
References:
http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/document/papers/Police_Population_Ratio.htm
