By IANS,
New Delhi : A frail Kaleshwar Sahani was attacked in Bihar for pointing irregularities in the rural job scheme. On Tuesday, she joined dozens of others in a protest here to demand a new law to protect whistle-blowers.
“I was beaten up for pointing out how money was fraudulently withdrawn from the accounts of workers of the rural job scheme,” Sahani, 60, told IANS, expressing a resolve to fight for the new law at a People’s Assembly held at Jantar Mantar here.
Dozens of people participated in the assembly, organised by a group of NGOs, and sought an early passage of the Anti-Corruption, Grievance Redressal and Whistleblower Protection Bill, pending in parliament.
“We want accountability, transparency in the administration which can only be ensured through stringent law like the right to information (RTI) and the proposed grievance redressal law,” Shankar Singh from Rajasthan told IANS.
Several of the participants at the event, who came from villages, narrated their ordeal in dealing with corrupt administration.
Poornima Chikarmane, a rag picker from Pune, said the government must not dilute the RTI law as it owed an explanation to people.
Communist Party of India leader D. Raja said: “This government is working to facilitate the corporate sector to loot this country.”