After a long wait, a legislation aimed at protecting Whistleblowers will be taken up by the Cabinet on Thursday. The bill has provisions to prevent victimization or disciplinary action against those who expose corruption in government. The proposed law is expected to encourage disclosure of information in public interest and will cover central, state and public sector employees. According to the bill, if a person making a disclosure is victimized...

The government on Thursday said a Bill to protect Whistleblowers is in the final stage of formulation. “A Bill to protect the persons who make public interest disclosures is nearing finalisation,” Minister of State for Public Grievances Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. “There have been reports in the media and government has been informed about the increased threat to RTI (Right to Information) activists. Such incidents...

‘In most cases, the top brass knew what was going on' Maharashtra tops the list with four; Gujarat had two NGOs plan a rally condemning the killing With the cold-blooded murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Amit Jethwa near the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad last Tuesday, the number of Whistleblowers killed this year alone has gone up to eight. The Congress-ruled Maharashtra tops the list with four killings, followed by the...

The lengths to which a government body can go to harass a Whistleblower is evident from an RTI reply that discloses it paid Rs 69.24 lakh in lawyers' fees over an 18-month period and the bulk of the money went to Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Responding to Whistleblower Abhijit Ghosh, Central Bank of India disclosed on July 1 that it had spent the money on lawyers from October 2008...

Two events triggered widespread condemnation and protests  Satish Shetty, who was murdered, had targeted the land mafia Dattatray Patil's targets were the powers that be in Kolhapur While Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan is proud that the State has an impressive 98.69 per cent disposal rate of requests under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the murder of two campaigners who used the law to good effect is a blot. First, it was...