Gujarat RTI activists mull association

At the Right to Information (RTI) activists’ meet on Sunday, discussions were held for forming taluka-level committees to be governed by a state-level association. Also, in the meeting, inclusion of government officials to support and strengthen the committees was considered. Around 50 RTI activists participated in the meet and discussed various problems faced by them.

RTI activist, Vinod Pandya said that all the activists worked independently without any association’s support till now. “Many of them were either threatened or attacked by mobs. The recent murder of Amit Jethwa, Jabbardan Gadhvi who burnt himself alive, is an indication of the danger other RTI activists face.

Hence, we are discussing formation of an association,” he said.

As of now, no association works for the benefit of RTI activists.

Pandya further said that they can raise their voices against corrupt and extract information from officials with the formation of this association. The rules of the association, who will be its members, what will be its functions were also discussed in detail at the meet.

Activist, Alpesh Bhavsar, who works on issues related to pollution said, “Earlier, if any activist was killed, the process of getting information he had applied for would stop. Presently, there is no mechanism to stop attacks on activists and after their death, the RTI application is either hushed or gets closed. But we want that even after such incidents, information should be made available to us.” Stating that the association should be strong, he further said that its impact should be such that it pressurises top officials to provide information quickly. Himanshu Banker, another city-based RTI activist said that with the formation of the association, they would get a unique identity.