New Delhi : The Union Cabinet is meeting today to discuss and approve key amendments to the anti-corruption Lokpal bill. The amendments have been proposed by the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha, where the bill has been pending since last year.

One of the major changes is that states will now have to set up lokayuktas within a year of the Lokpal bill being passed. Also, political parties will come under the Lokpal but religious and charitable institutions have been exempted.

Most of the suggestions of the Select Committee are learnt to have been accepted.

The Select Committee was set up to look into the recommendations of Rajya Sabha members for the Lokpall bill. After the Cabinet approves, the amendments will be put to vote in the Rajya Sabha.

The Lokpal bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha, but many of its proposals have faced strong opposition in the Rajya Sabha, including the one making it mandatory for the states to set up Lokayuktas.

Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, who has been the face of the Lokpal agitation, has vowed to start another countrywide campaign. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi wrote to Mr Hazare recently and assured that the Lokpal bill would be passed in the budget session of Parliament next month. But Mr Hazare says the Congress and its government have been giving such assurances for the past two years.