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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | NCPRI dharna demanding the passage of the Grievance Redress Bill & the Whistleblowers Protection Bill

NCPRI dharna demanding the passage of the Grievance Redress Bill & the Whistleblowers Protection Bill

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published Published on Feb 4, 2014   modified Modified on Feb 4, 2014
-National Campaign for People's Right to Information Press Release

 

New Delhi: The NCPRI held a dharna outside the Congress office in the morning to demand the passage of the Grievance Redress Bill & the Whistleblowers Protection Bill. Families of whistleblowers from across the country had joined the dharna. Families and colleagues of Satyendra Dubey, Ram Thakur and Shimbu Bishnoi were present at the Dharna.

NCPRI

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress party met with the people protesting outside the Congress office. He said that he and the Congress party were committed to the passage of these bills. He said that the Parliament was not being allowed to function and that was the reason why the bills weren't being taken up. He said that he understood that without these bills, the framework for transparency and accountability would remain incomplete. He said that RTI users are information warriors and that the Congress will try and ensure that people are empowered and their safety ensured through the pending bills. Ajay Maken, of the Congress, had earlier come out to address the Dharna and had assured people that the Congress party is committed to bringing these legislations.

Anjali Bhardwaj of the NCPRI said, "More than 40 people have been killed for exposing corruption. These were people who were exposing corruption and filing complaints about wrongdoing in various social security schemes. The whistleblowers protection Bill has been pending in Parliament for more than 3 years and the grievance redress bill has been in the Lok Sabha since 2011. Yet, the Parliament has not taken up these bills for debate and passage. How many deaths will it take for Parliament to understand the critical need of these bills to ensure a time-bound, decentralized mechanism for redressing complaints and ensuring the safety of those who expose corruption? Both the bills will lapse if they are not passed in the current session of Parliament - this will be a huge set back for everyone in the country."

Shekhar Singh of the NCPRI said, "If Parliament does not pass these bills due to disruptions, then to show its commitment to the legislations, the Government has the option of promulgating an ordinance on both the bills. If an ordinance is promulgated then it will become difficult for whichever party forms the government, to reverse the ordinance. Therefore, as a last resort, this option of an ordinance should be kept open."

Jagdish Bishnoi, brother of Shimbu Bishnoi, who was killed in October 2013 for exposing corruption in NGEGA, Tube-well scheme in Jodhpur, said, "Without a mechanism to protect people who seek information and expose corruption, the Right to Information Act has literally become a right to death act."

Dhanajay Dubey, brother of Satyendra Dubey said, "My brother Satyendra Dubey was killed in 2003 for exposing corruption in the NHAI. Since then we've been demanding that the whistleblowers protection bill be passed to ensure safety of people who risk their life to expose corruption." An online petition started by Dhananjay Dubey addressed to the leaders of political parties to demand passage of the whistleblowers protection bill and grievance redress bill has received the support thousands of people. At the time of this press release, close to 10,000 people have signed the petition. The petition is hosted at www.change.org/whistleblowersbill

The NCPRI will also be holding a dharna outside the BJP office today. The NCPRI will be organizing similar dharnas outside all political party offices to demand that all parties prioritise the passage of the whistleblowers protection bill and grievance redress bills.

The NCPRI also released a note on the Lokpal rules. The NCPRI criticized the rules as they restrict the slection of non-judicial members of the Lokpal to only retired bureaucrat, which is illegal and goes against the provisions of the Lokpal Act passed by Parliament.

Please click here to download the Note on the amendments required in the Grievance Redress Bill


NCPRI, 4 February, 2014,


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