Centre to shield honest bureaucrats in anti-graft cases
A provision for providing safeguard to all categories of the government employees is being offered.
All Central government employees may get a shield from prosecution as the Centre has okayed changes in the anti-corruption law and has decided to make it mandatory for investigating agencies like the CBI to take it’s prior approval before conducting any inquiry against them.
Union minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh on Thursday said the government has prepared a draft Anti-Corruption Amendment Bill to protect honest officers. “We have decided to introduce the Anti-Corruption Amendment Bill in the upcoming Session of Parliament.
A provision for providing safeguard to all categories of the government employees is being offered. We want to bring in changes so that honest employees are not harassed,” said the minister.
The Winter Session of Parliament will start on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters, he said such a decision was necessary to ensure that the bureaucracy, which is essential tool of good governance, continues to work without any fear or favour. The decision assumes significance as PM Narendra Modi had recently said that the government’s job is to ensure safety of honest employees.
The move is also based on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee, which had suggested to shield public servants by making it mandatory for probe agencies to take “previous approval” of the competent authority before conducting any probe against a public servant — from peon to secretary.
However, such an approval will not be necessary for cases involving “arrest of a person on the spot on the charge of accepting or attempting to accept any undue advantage for himself/herself or for any other person”, the panel had said.
The committee, that examined changes in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, gave its report in August.
The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on August 19, 2013, during the UPA rule.
However, it was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which had submitted its report to the Upper House on February 6, 2014, but the bill could not be passed then.