Anna Hazare dons a new avatar of Guest Editor Lokmat

Hazare made the news wire go abuzz as he decided to fast unto death to fast-track the formation of the Lokpal Bill. He finally ended his fast after five days and only when he received a gazette notification from the Centre on the constitution of a joint committee, comprising members from the government and civil society, for preparation of the draft Lokpal Bill.

The notification read that the Joint Drafting Committee would "commence its work forthwith and evolve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation." It is supposed to complete its work the latest by June 30, 2011.

The 10-member Joint Drafting Committee will have five Cabinet members ” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (chairman), Home Minister P. Chidamabaram, Law Minister Veerappa Moily (convener), Telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and Water Resources Minister Salman Khurshid. Apart from Hazare, civil society will be represented by the former Law Minister, Shanti Bhushan (co-chairperson), the former Supreme Court Judge, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal.