New Delhi (CNN) -- Activists fighting what they see as rampant corruption in India burnt copies of a new anti-graft bill they reject as lame-duck legislation.
Protesters on Thursday led by 72-year-old reformist Anna Hazare shredded the citizen ombudsman bill, called Lokpal, and dropped it into a fire in western India, even as the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh introduced it in parliament in far-away New Delhi.
Hazare -- whose five-day hunger strike in April prompted Singh's administration to agree to set up a new institution to tackle corruption -- has pledged a fresh agitation starting August 16.
Campaigners say the government's bill is too weak to tackle pervasive corruption, because it does not cover the judiciary or lower-level members of the country's bureaucracy.
Activists also are upset that their recommendations to hold prime ministers accountable while in office have not been accepted.
The Lokpal bill, in its present form, only would allow complaints to be filed against former prime ministers.
"We are challenging the authority of the government that wants to impose this bill on the people of India," said Arvind Kejriwal, an anti-corruption crusader. "It's a contempt of public sentiments."
Hazare and his supporters have mocked the Lokpal bill as "joke pal," saying it will not deter endemic corruption that Indians encounter in their daily lives.
Singh, whose government is reeling under a series of scandals, says parliament is the final legislative authority.
"In a democracy, parliament is a sovereign body; it should be allowed to function and discharge its duty," he told reporters on Sunday when asked about new rounds of protests over the bill.
A series of high-profile alleged scams have rocked Singh's government and investor confidence in Asia's third largest economy.
A former federal minister has been among at least a dozen defendants charged in a multi-billion-dollar telecom scandal.
Andimuthu Raja, a former telecommunications minister, is accused of being involved in a scheme to sell cell phone licenses at below market value at the height of India's lucrative telecom boom in 2008.
According to a government audit, the treasury lost as much as $31 billion in sale of the second-generation wireless spectrum.
The report came on the heels of allegations of massive fraud in sports and real estate.
Police have questioned politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate officials linked to the probe, but they have denied any wrongdoing.
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