Amendments to the RTI rules will put RTI users' lives in danger
There is a Petition being circulated for removing the repressive rules from the Act. I do not know how far is it correct. Here is the petition and petitioners:
RTI activist Suhas Haldankar was on his way back home when he was beaten to death by 11 people. Suhas’s head was smashed with concrete blocks and he collapsed in a pool of blood.
Suhas was using the RTI Act to expose civic lapses and raise his voice against the inefficiency of local corporators in Pune area.
And if the government has its way, we may see many more information seekers meeting Suhas's fate.
The government is trying to weaken the RTI Act by proposing amendments to the rules which will put RTI users' lives in danger.
The proposed rules allow for withdrawal of appeals based on a written communication by the appellant and closure of proceedings upon death of the appellant.
Given the Indian reality where RTI applicants are often attacked and even killed for seeking information, the proposed rules will make it easier for people with vested interests to pressurise RTI users and threaten them to withdraw their appeals.
In just the last few years more than 57 people have been killed for using the RTI Act to seek information. Having a rule like ‘closing the proceedings upon death of the appellant’ puts the lives of lakhs of people using RTI in danger.
The government should be protecting people who seek truth, demand accountability and expose corruption.
Instead of implementing the Whistle Blowers Protection Act which was passed by Parliament more than 3 years ago, the government is making information seekers more vulnerable through the proposed RTI rules.
Join us in demanding that the Central government withdraw these problematic provisions of the proposed RTI rules and also operationalise the Whistle Blowers Protection Act. more
RTI activist Suhas Haldankar was on his way back home when he was beaten to death by 11 people. Suhas’s head was smashed with concrete blocks and he collapsed in a pool of blood.
Suhas was using the RTI Act to expose civic lapses and raise his voice against the inefficiency of local corporators in Pune area.
And if the government has its way, we may see many more information seekers meeting Suhas's fate.
The government is trying to weaken the RTI Act by proposing amendments to the rules which will put RTI users' lives in danger.
The proposed rules allow for withdrawal of appeals based on a written communication by the appellant and closure of proceedings upon death of the appellant.
Given the Indian reality where RTI applicants are often attacked and even killed for seeking information, the proposed rules will make it easier for people with vested interests to pressurise RTI users and threaten them to withdraw their appeals.
In just the last few years more than 57 people have been killed for using the RTI Act to seek information. Having a rule like ‘closing the proceedings upon death of the appellant’ puts the lives of lakhs of people using RTI in danger.
The government should be protecting people who seek truth, demand accountability and expose corruption.
Instead of implementing the Whistle Blowers Protection Act which was passed by Parliament more than 3 years ago, the government is making information seekers more vulnerable through the proposed RTI rules.
Join us in demanding that the Central government withdraw these problematic provisions of the proposed RTI rules and also operationalise the Whistle Blowers Protection Act. more
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The Whistle Blower Act should be immediately enforce d. The death of the info seeker should not affect the process. more
May 06
I AGREE WITH YOU SIR DR.ATCHUTARAMAIAH MALYALA RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM On 02-May-2017 4:27 pm, "Pritam Sharma" wrote: > more
May 05
The present amendment that the application will become invalid after the death of the applicant is very dangerous and should be changed in such way that the culprit will be given punishment both for his mistake and also for the loss of the applicant in any way. The compensation should be made to pay by the culprit to family of the applicant if he gets killed , so that the culprit will see that the applicant's life protected more
May 04
we shall ask for Police Proection when we apply RTI and Government and Police need to give support to the Public for fighting a cause. In case of such death or normal death, the Court Judge of the Jurisdicationcan take up and appoint a public prosecutor to deal those cases... S Ethirajan, 9840966843 more
May 04
