New Delhi: The government has constituted an
Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to finalise a law aimed to
protect whistle blowers who raise the red flag on corruption.
Minister of State for Personnel and Public Grievances
Prithviraj Chavan said the GoM, headed by Defence Minister A K
Antony, will examine and finalise all relevant issues to be
incorporated in the proposed bill.
"The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of
Informers (PIDP) bill may be tabled in the later part of the
Budget session," he told reporters here.
Incidents like the killing of project director at the
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Satyendra Kumar
Dubey, who was murdered in Gaya, Bihar, after he fought
corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction
project, brought to the fore the need for a law which protects
such whistle-blowers.
Chavan said there was no immediate plan to again introduce
in Parliament the Lok Pal Bill, aimed at probing corruption in
high places including that of the office of Prime Minister, as
there was no political consensus.
"A decision has to be taken at political level. But there
is no political consensus. Without political consensus, the
Bill cannot be passed in the Parliament," he said.
The Lokpal Bill, 1996, drawn up ostensibly to root out
corruption at high places, has been introduced in Parliament
several times but still awaits the approval of both the
Houses.
-PTI
First Published: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 00:42