rtiact2005india4u: a ray of hope.......but after countless sacrifices

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/87311/cabinet-clears-whistleblowers-protection-bill.html

Cabinet clears Whistleblowers protection Bill
New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS)

The Cabinet on Monday cleared a bill to protect whistleblowers and it
is likely to be tabled during the ongoing monsoon session of
parliament, official sources said.

The approval for the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of
Information) Bill, 2010, was given at a cabinet meeting presided over
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. As per the bill, the onus will be
on the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to protect the identity of
the citizens who provide information about the misuse of governmental
authority and funds.

The CVC will be empowered to take action against those who reveal the
identity of the whistleblowers or those who threaten the
whistleblowers while those who make frivolous complaints will also be
liable to punishment.

The killing of whistleblowers Manjunath Shanmugam and Satyendra Dubey
and many Right to Information activists by anti-socials and vested
interests has prompted the government to draft the Bill, official
sources told IANS.

Several activists who exposed corruption by bureaucrats and political
leaders have been killed or threatened by mafia elements, it was
pointed out.Dubey, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur
alumnus, was killed in Bihar for exposing corruption by contractors in
building the national highways. "

Shanmugam, originally from Andhra Pradesh, and an officer in the
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), was killed after he exposed adulteration
in petrol pumps in Uttar Pradesh. He was an MBA from the Indian
Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.

There has been a rise in the number of attacks on RTI activsits across
the country recently.In the latest incident, activist Amit Jethwa was
shot outside the high court in Ahmedabad last month. Jethwa had named
BJP's Junagadh MP Dinu Solanki while exposing illegal mining in the
Gir forest area in Gujarat.

In Maharashtra, RTI activist Datta Patil was found dead in
Ichalkaranji in May. He had exposed a corruption racket which had
resulted in removal of a police official and disciplinary action
against Ichalkaranji corporation officials.

Earlier, Satish Shetty, a whistleblower who exposed land scandals, was
killed on Pune city outskirts in January. In a similar case, Vitthal
Gite, an activist of Aurangabad was killed in April. Gite had blown
the lid off irregularities in a village school in Beed district.
In Bihar, Shashidhar Mishra was killed by unknown attackers in
Begusarai in February. His murder came soon after he exposed corrupt
deals at the panchayat and block levels.
Several incidents of attacks on RTI activists have been reported from
Delhi and other states, officials said.

UPA leaders are hoping that the new bill will act as a deterrent to
the vested interests against rights activists.

"RTI has been a major achievement of the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government. It has created a silent revolution for the common
man. The UPA leadership wants the gains of the RTI Act to continue,
and the activists to be protected," said an All India Congress
Committee office bearer.

Here are some important features of the landmark whistleblowers
protection bill cleared by the union cabinet Monday:
* It is officially called The Public Interest Disclosure and
Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill, 2010.
* It is aimed at protecting the identity of citizens who reveal
information about the misuse of public authority and public money.
* Once this bill becomes law, it would empower the Central Vigilance
Commission (CVC) to penalise those who reveal the identity of
whistleblowers or threaten them.
* The penalty under the proposed legislation for the guilty is up to
three years of jail and a fine of up to Rs.50,000.
* According to the draft legislation, the CVC will be the nodal agency
in all such cases.
* The CVC will have the powers of a civil court.
* The bill, with provisions to prevent disciplinary action or any
other kind of victimisation of whistleblowers, will cover complaints
against all central and state government employees as well as public
sector employees.
* It will be now tabled in parliament. Once passed in parliament by
both the lower and upper houses, it will be signed by the president of
India following which the central government will notify it as law.
* The first step towards protecting whistleblowers was taken in 2004
when the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions
notified a resolution on April 21 that empowered the Central Vigilance
Commissioner to act on the complaints of whistleblowers and protect
them.
* This was considered to be an interim arrangement pending enactment of a law.
* This interim arrangement was made in light of the growing pressure
on the government to protect whistleblowers following the murder of
Satyendra Dubey, a young engineer working for the National Highways
Authority of India (NHAI), on Nov 29, 2003. Dubey had confidentially
complained against corruption in the implementation of the Prime
Minister's Golden Quadrilateral road project in Bihar.