The govt silence is killing

For the past six years, parliament has been silent on the public interest disclosure (protection of informers) Act, 2002, that guarantees protection to public servants who disclose corruption or mal administration or negligence by the bureaucracy, including the council of ministers except the prime minister.

The purpose of this proposed enactment was to strengthen the freedom of speech and right to information (RTI).

It aims to encourage disclosure of information that’s privy to the bureaucracy alone and which refuses to reveal it under the immunity clause.

Disgusted with the bureaucracy’s tenacity against helping in dealing with complaints invoking the RTI Act, the central information commission (CIC) recently warned that “denying information… would be detrimental to national efforts to promote free flow of information between citizens and the government”.

“On the basis of what has been submitted by the government, it is inferred that there is a lack of accountability mechanisms insofar as the implementation of the RTI Act is concerned.”

The Centre had examined the issue in 2002 amidst a countrywide debate on the need for enacting the whistle blowers Act.

Around that time when the supreme court as also parliament were seized of the Vohra Committee’s findings on criminalisation of politics that the Union government kept to its chest for many years, the law commission also felt the need for a law to protect informers.

Certain directions by the supreme court relating to the right to be informed were of fundamental importance on the subject of exposure of corrupt officers.

“If the law permits furnishing of information regarding corruption past, present or impending and gives protection to informants from reprisals unless the disclosure is proved to be malicious, such a law can play a very useful role,” the commission opined.

It’s an irony that though various governments swear to “zero tolerance” for corruption, they lack the will and drive to pass the 2006 Bill that covers allegations regarding “mal-
administration”.