Prime minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday urged the parliament to pass the Jan Lokpal

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bill criticised by activist Anna Hazare, who began a hunger strike in the financial hub of Mumbai saying the version pushed by the government doesn't go far enough.

Manmohan Singh's government has been at the receiving end of middle-class frustration with everyday graft and multi-billion dollar scandals in Asia's No. 3 economy, a state of affairs that forced the government this summer to agree to pass anti-corruption legislation before the year ends.

Singh defended the government's version of the bill which will create an ombudsman to investigate graft allegations, but which Hazare, 74, said falls short because the ombudsman does not have powers to oversee the federal police force.

"I urge my colleagues in parliament to rise to the occasion and look beyond politics to pass this law," Singh said in the parliament, while dismissing the changes sought by Hazare.

"Let us not create something that will destroy all that we cherish - all in the name of combating corruption. Let us remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The Lokpal bill, first proposed in 1968, is expected to be voted on later this week.

In Mumbai, Hazare repeated a threat to campaign against the Congress party and picket leaders' homes if Singh stuck to his government's stand that the federal police should function independently of the proposed ombudsman.

"The government is cheating the people," Hazare said as he started a three-day hunger strike, adding that the bill as it stands would not weed out corruption. "One day the people will teach the government a lesson."

SMALL TURNOUT

Turnout for Hazare's campaign to change the bill was small on Tuesday compared to the crowds of tens of thousands that accompanied him during a two week-long fast in August, which he ended after getting the government to agree to pass anti-graft legislation by the end of 2011.

Organizers had predicted about 100,000 protesters would accompany Hazare in Mumbai, but the turnout was about 4,000, police said. Hazare aide Vishwambhar Chaudhari admitted there was confusion over the purpose of the new hunger strike.

"There is neither an agenda nor a key objective for this strike, hence it has failed to attract supporters," Chaudhari said from the vast but mostly-empty palm tree-fringed ground in balmy Mumbai, adding he hoped numbers would pick up.

Hazare's protests set the political agenda in 2011, drawing attention to government graft and weakening Singh, who is keen to put the corruption debate to bed quickly and focus on a string of state elections and economic reform in the New Year.

But the government may struggle to pass the bill in its present form since the ruling coalition does not enjoy a majority in the upper house of parliament.

SOME CHANGES POSSIBLE

Singh could accept some amendments to the bill after leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, echoed Hazare's concerns during a rowdy debate.

"The bill is inadequate. The bill has lots of flaws, a lot of inconsistencies. We expected government to bring a bill that will remove corruption," she said.

Both the ruling Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, appeared to be in election mode in parliament, with the government trying to win over Muslim voters with a promise of affirmative action jobs in the planned ombudsman's office.