Notify whistleblowers' protection act, demand activists

The Citizens Whistle Blowers Forum here on Tuesday demanded that the concerning act which is to guarantee the protection to the whistleblowers be notified by the government and be brought into effect.

"It is crucial for transparency that the Bill be notified and the amendments which were proposed in it, and are retrograde in nature, be not introduced," Prashant Bhushan, senior advocate and member of Citizens Whistle Blowers Forum, told the media.

The Whistleblower Protection Act was passed by both houses of Parliament in 2014, but the government is yet to notify the act and bring it into law citing pending amendments which it wishes to introduce.

Under the proposed amendments, a whistleblower "must not provide information which is exempted under Right to Information Act" and thereby if he blows the whistle on such bodies he or she will be "liable for prosecution under the Official Secrets Act".

"This will kill the whole object of the Whistleblowers Act itself which is to encourage whistleblowers to inform the nodal authority about corruption in his department," a statement issued by the forum said.

It contested the shortcomings inherent in the structure built to address the complaints from such people and adduced the general instance of Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) who is rarely able to breach the hierarchy and initiate an inquiry against his seniors.

Explaining that since the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) does not have any mechanism of its own to launch an independent inquiry at its end, and refers the complaint to the CVO, it said that the CVO is "thus made subject to the disciplinary control of his own seniors against whom the complaint is received".

Because of this reason, it said, the complainants refrain from approaching the CVC, and resort to media or public interest lawyers.

Among its other demands, the forum demanded that a Lokpal be instated under the Lokpal Act, 2013, and the CBI be brought under its purview, referring the latter as the "caged parrot" of the government.

The forum also demanded that a committee be formed to which all such individuals may inform of any misdoing within their organisation. The committee in turn can guarantee anonymity and protection to them.

--IANS

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