urvashi
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: urvashi sharma <rtimahilamanchup@yahoo.co.in>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:54:12 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Suggestions regarding The Public interest Disclosure and
Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill. 2010.
To: vkvkutty@nic.in
Cc: presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, pmosb@pmo.nic.in, ""Also through Shri
Prithviraj Chavan (PMO)" <chavanprithviraj@sansad.nic.in>,
ak.marwaha@nic.in
By E-mail
To,
Shri V.K. Velukutty ( vkvkutty@nic.in )
Deputy Secretary(V-Ill)
Department of Personnel and Training
Room No. 10-8/11, North Block
New Delhi-110001.
E-mail : vkvkutty@nic.in
Subject : Suggestions regarding The Public interest Disclosure and
Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill. 2010.
Dear Sir ,
Please refer to the Bill No.97of 2010 . I strongly feel that if this
bill is enacted in its present form , it shall prove to be a boon for
the corrupt and a bane to the whistleblowers which shall result in a
death-blow to the chronically ailing democracy of India. Though the
bill mentions Corruption as a social evil which prevents proper and
balanced social growth and economic development but seems to having no
strong provision to contain corruption . Similarly though the bill
iterates that one of the impediments felt in eliminating corruption in
the Government and the public sector undertakings is lack of adequate
protection to the complainants reporting the corruption or willful
misuse of power or willful misuse of discretion which causes
demonstrable loss to the Government or commission of a criminal
offence by a public servant but it does not provide for an effective
framework to encourage whistleblowers .
In my views , the bill needs inevitable changes in the larger interest
of the country , so pay heed to the under mentioned points and inform
me of the final decision taken ;
1- Section 3 (4) (5) & (6) of the bill is unjustifiable and
should be deleted as given . It reads that disclosure should contain
full particulars and be accompanied by supporting documents, or other
material and the Competent Authority may, if it deems fit, call for
further information or particulars from the person making such
disclosure.It also provides that no action will be taken on public
interest disclosure by the Competent Authority if the disclosure does
not indicate the identity of the complainant or public servant making
public interest disclosure or the identity of the complainant or
public servant is found incorrect or false . It is in line with the
spirit of the bill and also in the larger interest of the society that
the competent authority should take suo-motto cognizance of cases of
corruption and take action;
2- Chapter III , Section 4 in its present form has more provisions
to disclose the identity of the complainant than to hide it , thus
exposing him to more threats;
3- Section 4 (1) (a) should be deleted. The Spirit of the bill
should be to investigate the corruption and not the complainant ;
4- Underlying portion of Section 4 (4) should be deleted. "
Provided that if the Competent Authority is of the opinion that it
has, for the purpose of seeking comments or explanation or report from
them under sub-section (3) on the public disclosure, become necessary
to reveal the identity of the public servant to the Head of the
Department of the organization or authority, board or corporation
concerned or office concerned, the Competent Authority may reveal the
identity o f the complainant or public servant to such Head of the
Department of the organization or authority, board or corporation
concerned or office concerned for the said purpose." The purpose
should be to hide the identity of the complainant . Upon receipt , a
case/ file no should be given to each case and the process should be
preceeded under this no.
5- The Competent Authority should seek comments in all the
reported cases and should not make discreet inquiry as given in bill.
This needs to be changed accordingly;
6- For the reasons as explained above in this letter , section 5
should be deleted as this becomes irrelevant after scrapping of
portion of section 4 (4).
7- In most cases the complaints are about H.O.Ds and there should
be specific provisions to deal these as well .
8- Though indirectly covered under this bill , their should be
specific mention of disclosures against the politicians who are the "
glaciers of corruption ".
9- Section 5(3) needs the most attention . It reads " The
Competent Authority shall not investigate, any disclosure involving an
allegation, if the complaint is made after the expiry of five years
from the date on which the action complained against is alleged to
have taken place. " Isn't it like legalizing all corruption cases
that are five years old. This is highly unconstitutional. A corruption
is a corruption forever and binding it in 5 years time limit is highly
unwarranted. This clause needs to be deleted.
10- Section 5(4) which reads " Nothing in this Act
shall be construed as empowering the Competent Authority to question,
in any inquiry under this Act, any bona fide action or bona fide
discretion (including administrative or statutory discretion)
exercised in discharge of duty by the employee." Needs to be deleted .
In democracy , public functions are performed based on rules and on
micro level no one has any discretionary powers . All such matters
needs to be brought under the ambit of this new legislation.
11- Section 7 ( 1 ) should be in line with RTI
act 2005 and should not contradict it . it needs to be seen .
12- In section 10 ( 1 ) " merely on the ground that
such person or a public servant had made a disclosure or rendered
assistance in inquiry under this Act." Should be replaced with " on
any grounds whatsoever , that shall include that such person or a
public servant had made a disclosure or rendered assistance in inquiry
under this Act also"
13- In section 10 ( 2 ) " may give suitable
directions " should be replaced with " shall give suitable directions
" . This should be mandatory, not discretionary;
14- In section 13 "may pass such interim orders as
it may deem fit" should be replaced with "shall pass such interim
orders as be fit" to keep the spirit of the bill alive,
15- Section14 of the bill needs necessary changes.
The very purpose of the bill gets defeated when it imposes uniform
petty penalty of two hundred fifty rupees for each day till report is
furnished with the ceiling of fifty thousand rupees . The reported
matters of corruption generally involves crores of crores and the
penalty amount should be some percentage of the reported scam money if
the official/organization, without any reasonable cause, has not
furnished the report within the specified time or mala fidely refused
to submit the report or knowingly given incomplete, incorrect or
misleading or false
report or destroyed record or information which was the subject of the
disclosure or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the report.
Similarly Any person, who negligently or mala fidely reveals the
identity of a complainant be treated as a criminal of section 302 and
be punished accordingly because exposing the identity of the
whistleblower exposes him to the open danger of life .
16- Section 16 of this bill is the most
objectionable section of the bill , hence this section needs to be
removed in entirety . How can one think of a punishment to the
whistleblowers ? if this section is not removed , its better to dump
the bill and forget it forever.
17- Following portion of Section 17 (1) should be
deleted "unless he proves that the offence was committed without his
knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the
commission of such offence " . All Departmental heads enjoy numerous
special facilities at the expense of public money only because they
are thought of being capable to handle those responsibilities
righteously . if the can not , they are incapable and should leave the
post themselves or if any wrong is done even when they are there ,
they should bear the responsibility and be punished .
Apart from all these ,the negative aspects of this bill are -
compulsory identity declaration of whistleblower , onus to collect the
evidence on the whistleblower , no clear-cut distinction between the
complainant and the whistleblower , only one competent authority to
approach to get protection under the act , no direct sections to bring
the politicians , mafias etc within the ambit of the bill ,
punishments to whistleblowers , no clear-cut difference in
disclosures and complaints etc . The bill needs specific provisions to
eliminate these negative aspects as well .
Moved by the murders of many whistleblowers , A few months back on
13th July 2010 I raised an online petition titled "Help save lives of
RTI activists / RTI users to save democracy in INDIA " . This petition
has more than 850 endorsement with specific comments of N.G.O.s/Social
Groups/Social workers/Activists/whistleblowers / individuals from
across the world. The petition and the views expressed in this
petition should also be considered while finalizing "The Public
interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure
Bill. 2010". The Online petition is available at given web-link –
http://www.petitiononline.com/13062010/petition.html
Please take all of the abovementioned suggestions into account to give
the nation an effective tool to eliminate the corrupt and save the
honest race in INDIA and also to show that you really care with clear
intent and spirit .
Regards,
Date : 30-09-2010
Yours truly,
Urvashi Sharma
F – 2376 , Rajajipuram , Lucknow
Pin Code – 226017 , Uttar Pradesh , India
Mobile No. – 9369613513 , 9305463313
e-mail rtimahilamanchup@gmail.com , rtimahilamanchup@yahoo.co.in
Copies for necessary action ( by e-mail ) to –
1- "Her Excellency President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh
Patil" presidentofindia@rb.nic.in ,
2- "Hon'ble Prime Miister of India Dr. Man Mohan Singh"
pmosb@pmo.nic.in ,
3- Shri Prithviraj Chavan chavanprithviraj@sansad.nic.in ,
4- Shri A. K. Marwaha, Deputy Secretary (Admin.)
Department of AR & PG,Sardar Patel Bhawan
Parliament Street, New Delhi - 110 001
Phone - (011)23401441
Email - ak.marwaha@nic.in
Yours truly,
Urvashi Sharma
F – 2376 , Rajajipuram , Lucknow
Pin Code – 226017 , Uttar Pradesh , India
Mobile No. – 9369613513 , 9305463313
e-mail rtimahilamanchup@gmail.com , rtimahilamanchup@yahoo.co.in
--
Urvashi Sharma
RTI Helpmail( Web Based )
aishwaryaj2010@gmail.com
Mobile Rti Helpline
8081898081 ( 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. )
