Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Friday met human rights activists at Jantar Mantar here and assured them the government would bring an ordinance on anti-corruption and human rights bills.

 

 

 Thousands of people, including activists, protested demanding the government bring out an ordinance on three pending human rights legislations — the Grievance Redress bill, the Disability Rights bill and the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment bill.

 

 "He (Rahul Gandhi) told us he has spoken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi about bringing an ordinance on the pending bills," Anjali Bhardwaj of the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information told IANS.

 

 "He also said the government will bring the ordinance soon," she said, adding Gandhi remained with them for over 15 minutes.

 

 Parliament has passed the Whistle Blowers Protection Bill and the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill.

 

 Earlier, Bhardwaj said that it was shameful that parliament was not passing key human rights bills pending for several years.

 

 She said that all the bills pending in parliament had wide political consensus and they could have been easily passed if parliamentarians had the political will.

 

 The Rajya Sabha Friday passed the Whistle Blowers Bill. This is the only one of the six anti-graft bills that could be passed in this session.

 

 Bhardwaj said since the house was adjourned sine die, the protesters would meet political leaders to urge for reconvening parliament at least for a day to pass all the pending bills.

 

 "Parliament needs to be reconvened or the government should come up with an ordinance so the bills do not lapse," she said.