By IANS,
New Delhi : Here are some important features of the landmark whistleblowers protection bill cleared by the union cabinet Monday:
* It is officially called The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill, 2010.
* It is aimed at protecting the identity of citizens who reveal information about the misuse of public authority and public money.
* Once this bill becomes law, it would empower the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to penalise those who reveal the identity of whistleblowers or threaten them.
* The penalty under the proposed legislation for the guilty is up to three years of jail and a fine of up to Rs.50,000.
* According to the draft legislation, the CVC will be the nodal agency in all such cases.
* The CVC will have the powers of a civil court.
* The bill, with provisions to prevent disciplinary action or any other kind of victimisation of whistleblowers, will cover complaints against all central and state government employees as well as public sector employees.
* It will be now tabled in parliament. Once passed in parliament by both the lower and upper houses, it will be signed by the president of India following which the central government will notify it as law.
* The first step towards protecting whistleblowers was taken in 2004 when the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions notified a resolution on April 21 that empowered the Central Vigilance Commissioner to act on the complaints of whistleblowers and protect them.
* This was considered to be an interim arrangement pending enactment of a law.
* This interim arrangement was made in light of the growing pressure on the government to protect whistleblowers following the murder of Satyendra Dubey, a young engineer working for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), on Nov 29, 2003. Dubey had confidentially complained against corruption in the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Golden Quadrilateral road project in Bihar.