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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Centre blows the whistle on the Bill-J Gopikrishnan

Centre blows the whistle on the Bill-J Gopikrishnan

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published Published on Aug 12, 2012   modified Modified on Aug 12, 2012
-The Pioneer

Plans to gag babus in amended Bill

The UPA Government is mulling on bringing amendments to the Whistle Blowers Protection Bill, which is pending in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha in the last Winter Session without any debate.

According to sources, the amendments will dilute the spirit of the Bill by stripping the status of whistleblowers to officials who tried to use Government documents like Cabinet notes and policy-related papers to expose corruption. This will literally bar Government servants from acting like whistleblowers.

The proposed amendments will tie the hands of the Government employees and prevent them from exposing the wrongdoings in decision-making since “policy matters” in the proposed amendments is expected to cover most of the Government papers and documents.

Sources said Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is set to submit these amendments to the Cabinet soon.

According to sources, the proposed amendments are intended to widen the exclusion of matters from the definition of public interest disclosure, defined under Section 4 of the passed Bill.

The proposed amendments are expected to add provisions, which would virtually prevent a Government officer from leaking any sort of information. The draft note prepared by DoPT is intended to slap the archaic punishment provisions of Central Civil Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules on a Government servant who tries to act as whistleblower.

The Government has declared that it intended to pass the Bill in this session itself.

The Whistle Blowers Protection Bill 2011 was passed in Lok Sabha along with Lokpal Bill on December 27, 2011 during Anna Hazare’s fast in Mumbai. This crucial Bill was passed in Lok Sabha without any debate since the House was focussed on dealing with the Lokpal Bill.

In the Bill passed by Lok Sabha, any person who wants protection as a whistleblower can approach the  Central Vigilance Commission. The Bill stipulates that provisions under Official Secrets Act (OSA) remain sacrosanct and no person claim protection as a whistleblower for violating them.

This already empowers the Government to punish any Government employee who leaks information covered under OSA.  Now the proposed amendments will also give power to the Government to invoke the provision of the Central Civil Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules against employees wanting to turn whistleblowers.

In the present shape, the Bill already prohibits security and intelligence officials from turning whistleblowers.

The Pioneer, 11 August, 2012, http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/86600-centre-blows-the-whistle-on-the-bill.html


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