NCPRI urges govt to frame rules for Whistle Blowers Act

Firstpost: New Delhi: Wednesday, August 13, 2014.

The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) has written to the Prime Minister urging the government to immediately promulgate rules for the enactment of the Whistle Blowers Protection Act.

The NCPRI has drafted model rules for the Whistle Blowers Protection Act and has sent a copy of these rules to the PM and the concerned minister.

The Whistle Blowers Protection Act was passed by Parliament in February 2014 after a sustained campaign by the NCPRI and families of slain whistleblowers.

The Act received the President's assent in May 2014. Since the time the Act was passed by Parliament, at least three more people have been allegedly killed for exposing corruption. These whistleblowers could have been afforded protection had the Act been enforced, NCPRI said in a statement.

Seventy-year-old RTI activist Mangat Tyagi, was allegedly murdered in April 2014 in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh for exposing corruption in public works. He had filed around 14,000 requests for information under the RTI Act in a bid to expose corruption and was shot dead outside his village by three assailants. RTI activists, Chandra Mohan Sharma and Sanjay Tyagi, died under mysterious circumstances in May 2014.

Chandra Mohan Sharma, aged 38, had filed over 300 requests for information regarding encroachments on government land, costs for building government roads, the functioning of residents' welfare associations and allotment of land by the government. His body was recovered from his car near his house in Greater Noida, both he and the vehicle were badly charred.

RTI activist Sanjay Tyagi was shot dead in Meerut on 25 May, 2014 following which a case of murder against unknown people was registered.

These deaths add to the long list of more than 40 whistleblowers who have been killed in the last few years for demanding accountability from public authorities and exposing corruption. Any further delay in bringing the Act into force will expose more whistle blowers to undue harm, NCPRI said.