New Delhi:
Rapped on the knuckles by the Supreme Court for not ensuring autonomy for the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI, the Centre has tried to demonstrate alacrity by setting up a Group of Ministers or GoM to decide on a plan of action to do the court's bidding.
Pinaki Misra, the BJD MP who is part of one such committee however points out that the government could save time by seriously considering the exhaustive recommendations of multiple parliamentary committees that have already been through this exercise and submitted reports on how autonomy for the CBI can be secured. "We have already recommended financial independence, better recruitment, and no post retirement jobs," he told NDTV.
The Supreme Court had asked the Centre whether it was contemplating a law to make the working of the CBI independent and insulate it from extraneous intrusion and interferences.
At least five parliamentary panels have submitted reports since 2008, the last of these handing in a report on May 3, just six days before the Supreme Court called the CBI a "caged parrot with many masters" and castigated the government for then Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and two government officials vetting a draft of a report on the CBI's coal investigation meant for the judges.
The latest house panel report on autonomy for the CBI, authored by a committee that includes MPs from across parties like Shantaram Naik (Congress) and Ram Jethmalani (BJP) has identified financial dependence as a key stumbling block in the way of the CBI being autonomous.
The personnel ministry sanctions funds for the CBI and the premier agency depends on these sanctions for the smallest of purchases. The Annual budget becomes a haggling point, it notes, with the government very often sanctioning less monies than sought by the CBI.
The panels have recommended a statutory position for the CBI, which would give it status equivalent to other autonomous bodies like the Election Commission and Comptroller and Auditor General.
And, importantly, they have recommended a separate cadre of officers for the CBI to ensure that there is no shortage of manpower. The CBI currently draws its investigators from state police and is has a lot of vacancies at every level.
The BJP today called the government's move to set up the panel "eyewash. It has again slammed the Congress-led UPA for what it alleges is the "misuse" of the CBI.