Important Information- National Convention on Grievance Redress and Whistleblower Protection

From: NCPRI India <ncpri.india@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 10:03 PM
Subject: Important Information- National Convention on Grievance Redress and Whistleblower Protection
To: 


Dear Friends,

Greetings from the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI).
The NCPRI and other organizations are organizing a two-day national
convention on the 10th and 11th of October 2011 to discuss the
proposed measures for grievance redress and whistleblower protection.

Why this Convention:
The NCPRI has been engaged in issues of transparency and
accountability, particularly with respect to empowering the ordinary
citizen vis-a-vis established structures of power and inequity. The
right to information was a step in that direction, but as people and
groups across the country have begun to use its provisions, questions
of accountability, and the political space to raise issues of
injustice have become very important concerns.

Grievance Redress:
In the wake of current debates around corruption and grievances, we
feel it is important to once again highlight people's struggles for
ordinary rights and services like ration, hospitals, schools, water,
sanitation, roads, MNREGA entitlements, pensions, Indira Awaas and a
host of other government schemes for so-called development that never
reaches people. In addition, there is the extreme frustration that
arises from an almost complete lack of accountability in the
interaction of an ordinary citizen with any government office. Apart
from the inequity in entitlements, the lack of accountability and the
day-to-day corruption faced by ordinary people remains one of the
biggest reasons for the poorest and most marginalized sections of our
society not securing their basic right to development. This inherently
exploitative system, is compounded by the lack of an effective
mechanism through which the ordinary person can either individually or
collectively secure their rights, or even establish their grievances
with respect to these rights and services, and . Effective grievance
redress requires an accessible, decentralized, and responsive system
equipped to deal with grievances in a time-bound and accountable
manner.

Protecting the whistleblower:
At the same time, people struggling for these rights and the scores of
activists who have tried to uncover the nexus of corruption between
politicians, bureaucrats and other private interests at the local,
regional and national levels have been at the receiving end of
harassment, threats and violence. Over the years, many activists
struggling for justice have been imprisoned, seriously threatened,
injured or have even lost their lives. While a whistleblower
protection Bill was introduced in Parliament in response to the number
of killings of RTI activists that were taking place, the Bill
continued to be limited by the traditional concept of the
whistleblower, as one within an office blowing the whistle on its
wrongdoings. While that kind of protection is certainly needed in
India, a more comprehensive Whistleblower Protection mechanism is
essential for ensuring that the struggles for justice, accountability
and transparency in public life are not compromised by vested
interests again and again.

The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) has
proposed a series of anti-corruption and grievance redress measures to
effectively tackle corruption in the government, redress grievances of
citizens and protect whistleblowers. A key element of these measures
is a National Grievance Redress legislation which draws on the
experience of strength and weaknesses of existing grievance redress
mechanisms in NREGA, PDS, health, education, FRA etc. and proposes an
independent, decentralized grievance redress mechanism. The NCPRI
draft Bill is available at www. righttoinformation.info .

In order to ensure protection of whistleblowers, the NCPRI has
proposed several amendments to strengthen the 'Public Interest
Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill' that
is currently before the Parliament and is proposing an effective
Whistleblower Protection Bill instead. The suggested amendments are
available at www.righttoinformation.info.

The provisions for both these laws have been based on consultations
and discussions with activists and others . However, there is a great
need for these proposed laws to be discussed in greater detail, by
different organisations and campaigns, and in different parts of the
country.

As an important part of discussing the proposed measures for grievance
redress and whistleblower protection the NCPRI, along with other
organizations are organizing a two-day national convention in Delhi on
the 10th and 11th of October 2011. The aim is to invite
individuals,citizen's groups, jan sangathans from across the county to
collectively discuss the two proposed measures and to then pass
recommendations and resolutions to send to Government, the Standing
Committee and Parliament, where the Bills are under consideration.
These will be preliminary resolutions, and the discussions raised in
this convention will be taken back by the representatives of the
various organizations/campaigns to their respective areas to expand
and deepen the debate.

Venue: Bluebells School, Opposite Lady Shri Ram College, Near Greater
Kailash (GK) I, New Delhi-110024. Please find attached with this email
the following:
1) Invitation Letter- in English and Hindi
2) Draft Public Grievances Redressal Bill- in English and Hindi with
questions for discussion
3) NCPRI Background Note on Public Grievance Redressal Bill
4) NCPRI Background Note on Whistleblower Protection Mechanism
5) Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendations on Public Interest
Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill, 2010
(Whistleblower Protection Bill)
6) Draft Agenda
7) List of Workshops
8) Registration Forms

We hope that you can join us for the Convention in Delhi. Please do
let us know of the number of participants from your organization who
will be attending this convention.

With warm regards and in solidarity,
Nikhil Dey, Venkatesh Nayak, Angela Rangad and Ramakrishna Raju
(for the NCPRI)

--
National Campaign for People's Right to Information
Email: ncpri.india@gmail.com
www.righttoinformation.info