The Asian Age: New Delhi: Thursday, July 17, 2014.
RTI activists
have demanded that the central information commission (CIC) maintain records of
murdered, harassed or threatened RTI applicants across the country so that a
national level debate can be initiated with participation of the Parliament.
The demand
resurfaced following CIC’s denial about having any such information in reply to
an RTI query filed by Pune-based activist Vihar Durve.Mr Durve had sought
information related to harassed, attacked and murdered RTI applicants to which
CIC replied it did not keep records of such cases. Instead, the commission
passed the buck to the department of personnel and training (DoPT), saying it
was the nodal ministry for implementation of the RTI Act and framing of rules
and regulations.
Upset over
CIC’s response, Mr Durve wrote letters to top authorities such as the human
rights commission and hundreds of RTI activists across the country including
Aruna Roy, Narayan Verma, Shailesh Gandhi, Subhash Agrawal, Bhaskar Prabhu,
Anil Galgali and Chetan Kothari and initiated a campaign to protect RTI
activists in this manner.
“In fact, the
chief information commissioner of all states and central commission should
maintain records of such atrocities on activists and submit annual reports to
the concerned comptroller and auditor general of the state so that CAG can take
cognisance in its report that will fetch some seriousness, in turn solving the
matter,” said Mr Durve.
Importantly,
an earlier RTI query filed by Mr Durve found 151 cases of RTI activists being
attacked, murdered, physically or mentally harassed across the country. At the
time, the DoPT informed Mr Durve that Maharashtra (35) topped the list of
atrocities against RTI activists followed by Gujarat (24) and Delhi (12).
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