Bill for whistleblowers' safety introduced in Parliament

"The framework of existing laws such as Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code etc. is considered adequate to provide for safety and security to all citizens, including RTI activists.
"A bill to protect persons who make public interest disclosures has already been introduced in the Parliament. As such, there is no proposal to amend the RTI Act for this purpose," Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

He said there have been reports in the media that some persons have been murdered in the last two years allegedly due to their role as RTI activists. Some of the persons who are alleged to have been murdered include Ramdas Patil Ghandegasonkar, Babbu Singh, Amit Jethwa, Datta Patil, Vitthal Gite, Sola Ranga Rao and Arun Sawant.

As maintenance of law and order and providing security for all citizens is primarily the subject matter of state governments, the Centre has drawn the attention of States to the media reports about the victimisation of people, who use RTI to expose irregularities in administration.

"The States have been requested that if any such instance comes to the notice, it should be promptly inquired into and action be taken against the offenders," Narayanasamy said.