TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Parrikar is intimidating potential whistleblowers through his statements in the press that “frivolous complaints made to the Lokayukta would be viewed seriously,” Trajano D’Mello has said.
“By saying so the Chief Minister has betrayed his intentions of trying to control the views of the Ombudsman. In fact the Chief Minister should appeal to the people to lodge complaints before Lokayukta without fear or favor, to help him achieve his promise of “zero tolerance” to corruption, and should in fact promise full protection to whistleblowers,” Trajano opined.
“Section 12 of the Act makes it abundantly clear that the complaint will be preliminary looked into whether it deserves further investigation or not. Moreover, Section 19(i) stipulates a fine of Rs 10,000 for a frivolous or vexatious complaint or one with an ulterior motive,” Trajano said adding that there was no need for Parrikar to specifically mention that fact.
Trajano also said that asking the press to “restrain from reporting complaints till it reaches a logical conclusion, is absurd.”
“It was the very same person, when functioning as the Opposition Leader, who had called press conferences and made various charges of high level corruption against ministers in office,” Trajano recalled.