New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) The first meeting of the joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill Saturday was "extremely cordial", with the government agreeing to audio-record discussions and hold public consultations on the anti-graft law.

The panel is to meet next May 2, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said while coming out of the meeting of the 10-member panel, which has five representatives each from civil society and the government, at North Block.

"It has been an extremely historic event because we believe that the atmosphere in which discussions took place was extremely cordial and we hope to arrive at a consensus and through the consensus a very strong Lokpal Bill will come which will purge corruption," Sibal, a member, told reporters at the end of the nearly two-hour meeting.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is chairperson of the panel, while former law minister Shanti Bhushan is co-chair. The panel was formed last week following a 97-hour-long fast held by social crusader Anna Hazare for a stringent anti-corruption law. It also has lawyer Prashant Bhusan as a member.

"Our meetings started at 11.30 a.m. It was an amiable meeting in which all the representatives and the government made some valuable contributions.

"Prashant Bhushan circulated the Jan Lokpal Bill and Shanti Bhushan explained the salient features of the Jan Lokpal Bill. We also consulted on the procedures to be adopted in the coming weeks," he said.

Sibal said a suggestion was made that these proceedings should be video-graphed and a discussion was held on it.

"There is an audio-recording of the proceedings and we have decided together to share whatever happened with the public from time to time," he said.

The union minister said that advocate Prashant Bhushan, also a member, suggested and everybody agreed that there should be public consultations in the process so that the views of common people are also considered by the committee.

"We both agreed that we should have a strong Lokpal Bill which should be introduced in the monsoon session. As far as procedure, we will be deciding at the next meeting which will be on May 2," he said.

He said the substantive provisions of the bill, including the Jan Lokpal Bill, will be discussed during the second meeting.

Prashant Bhushan said the committee has decided that all the proceedings will be made public. "It is decided that consultations through website and public consultation will also be held in different regions of the country," said Prashant Bhushan.

"It was also agreed that a strong and effective Lokpal is the need of the country and the bill is important because India has signed and will ratify the UN convention against corruption. Lokpal has the right to investigate all public servants and to start prosecution proceedings against them," he said.

Prashant Bhushan said the exact modality of public consultation and basic principles of Lokpal Bill will be discussed May 2. "After that, meetings will be held every week," he added.