Nation needs a Plumber

India needs a Chief Plumber urgently to arrest the leaks of confidential reports to Media. 


Grappled with an unprecedented surge in the leak of confidential governmental reports to media, the Cabinet Committee on Security met yesterday to find a solution. The Cabinet Secretary brought the following leaks to the attention of the members:   

• CAG report on Coal scam leaked to press.

• Opposition leaks CAG report on Vilasrao Deshmukh

• Senior Minister in Manmohan Singh government might have leaked the non-notified movement of army to Indian Express, alleges The Sunday Guardian.

• DNA India published  the letter General V K Singh wrote to the Prime Minister.

• Various documents of the army relating to Tatra deal are accessed by media.  

Cabinet reviewed the following options:

• Officialize the leaks to media. Instead of placing the reports before the Parliament or a Committee of the Parliament, it was suggested that the reports could be directly released to media. While P Chidambaram was comfortable with this path-breaking solution, other members expressed reservation.

• Appoint a Chief Plumber to arrest the leaks. The Chief Plumber will be accorded constitutional status like Chief Election Commissioner, the CAG, the Proposed Lokpal, etc.

The second option was accepted after a majority of the members of the Committee favored the same. Accordingly the Department of Personnel under the Home Ministry released advertisements for the post of Chief Plumber.