Cabinet clears Bill to protect whistleblowers CNN-IBN -9/8/10

New Delhi: Union Cabinet on Monday cleared the Whistleblowers Bill which seeks to protect the identity of those exposing corruption and scams. Officially called the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill, 2010, it came at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday. The Bill will now be tabled in Parliament and if passed will be sent to President Pratibha Patil. After the President signs the Bill it will become an Act.

If passed, the Act will put the onus on the Central Vigilance Commission to protect the identity of citizens who provide information about the misuse of public money and authority. The Act empowers the CVC to take action against those who reveal the identity or even threaten whistleblowers. It will also be able to take action against anyone who makes frivolous complaints.

The Whistleblowers Bill comes following the murders of Manjunath Shanmugam, Satyendra Dubey and many RTI activists who have been exposing incidents of corruption by public servants and political leaders.

While Dubey, an IIT Kanpur civil engineering graduate, was killed for exposing corruption in building national highways in Bihar; Shanmugam blew the whistle on adulteration at petrol pumps in Uttar Pradesh. Shanmugam was an IIM Lucknow alumnus and employed with Indian Oil Corporation.

A string of attacks on Right to Information activsits across the country has raised serious concerns.

RTI activist Amit Jethwa was the latest to pay for exposing corruption with his life. He was gunned down outside the Ahmedabad High Court in July 2010. Jethwa had named BJP's Junagadh MP Dinu Solanki while exposing illegal mining on the Gir forest periphery.

In May 2010 RTI activist Datta Patil was found murdered in Ichalkaranji. Patil, had unearthed a corruption racket, which had resulted in removal of a deputy superintendent of police and action against Ichalkaranji corporation officials.

In April 2010, Vitthal Gite, an education activist, was killed in Aurangabad. He had exposed irregularities in a village school in Beed. An RTI activist was assaulted by anti-social elements at Kishanganj in Delhi in February, allegedly at the behest of an MCD councillor.

Shashidhar Mishra of Begusarai in Bihar was murdered by unknown assailants in February 2010. Mishra had exposed corruption at the panchayat and block levels.

In January Satish Shetty, a prominent RTI activist who had exposed land scams, was killed in the outskirts of Pune. Shetty who had exposed many land scams in Maharashtra, was murdered while on his morning walk.