The government is ready with a draft bill, which aims to protect whistleblowers who raise the alarm over corruption in Central government ministries and offices, and agencies or institutions under them. The draft legislation, which is called “The Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill 2010”, is high on the agenda of the Union Cabinet at its meeting here on Thursday.
Revealing this, sources in the government said the Cabinet, which will meet on Thursday, is likely to consider the proposal put up by the department of public grievances to enact a law to protect the interests of “whistleblowers”. A source said: “The draft law — The Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill 2010 — is high on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.”
According to the agenda note, provision will be made in the bill to make the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) the designated authority to which complaints against any Central government employee or Central government-backed institution can be made by whistleblowers or any other person from outside, and adequate protection (physical or otherwise) will be provided wherever necessary.
The bill, if cleared by the Cabinet and thereafter passed by Parliament, will go a long way in helping those who who make public interest disclosures, the sources said, adding thatg this will help to save innocent lives. Though the bill does not specifically protect RTI activists, the aim is to ensure that people like Amit Jethava (an RTI activist) of Gujarat do not get killed for seeking information from the government.
The issue of protection for whistleblowers caught the attention of the entire nation after the murder of National Highways Authority of India engineer Satyendra Dubey, who had sent a letter to then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee giving an account of corruption in the construction of national highways in Bihar.