Times of India: Chennai: Saturday,
June 11, 2016.
The brutal
daylight murder of RTI activist J Parasmal (59), who would target the Chennai
Corporation and TANGEDCO, has shocked other activists in the city. They see the
murder as a way to silence protesting voice and hence curtailing dissent.
"The
killing of activists is a warning to common citizens not to fight wrongdoers.
The message is simple; just be silent spectators to all the wrongs taking place
right in front of your eyes," said RTI activists D Gopalakrishnan and R
Vadivelu.
Citizens are
an integral part of democracy and it is their responsibility and right to point
out flaws in the functioning of the government, the duo said.
Parasmal was
using RTI to expose the collusion of government officials in construction of
unauthorised commercial and residential buildings with the mafia. "This
phenomenon is growing like cancer in the city. Occupancy of buildings without
obtaining completion certificate is also on the rise," the duo said.
Resident Welfare associations must play a keen role to highlight such
discrepancies, they said.
Co-convenor
of NGO Arapor Iyakkam Jayaram Venkatesan wondered how the unauthorised building
owners would have known that the RTIs were being filed by Parasmal as some of
them were being filed by associates. "This means there is a chance that
the concerned RTIs were leaked from the government offices," he said.
The murder
has opened the debate on the Whistleblower Protection Act which sought to
protect those exposing corruption in government offices. "The Bill is in
cold storage as it has lapsed. The government at the Centre has not taken any
action. We are going to petition the chief secretary of the state regarding the
Bill," Venkatesan said.
The act is
necessary as many complaints have been filed by citizens and many such cases
are pending with governments and courts which need speedy disposal,
Gopalakrishnan said. "This Bill is also necessary for honest government
servants who might want to expose wrongdoing," he said.
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