Activists say the council will act as a depository where members will submit the responses to their RTI queries.
Right to Information (RTI) activists in Pune have decided to form an RTI Council to reduce threat perception of RTI activists who expose wrongdoings by disseminating sensitive information procured by them.
A decision was taken in a meeting of RTI activists held on Sunday to discuss the situation following the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty on January 13 in Talegaon Dabhade.
The meeting was attended by Major General (Retd.) SCN Jatar, former inspector-general of police SM Mushrif, RTI activists Vivek Velankar and Vijay Kumbhar, civic activists Manav Kambale, Maruti Bhapkar and Satish Shetty’s younger brother Sandip. Several other RTI activists of the city also attended the meeting.
Niranjan Phadake, general secretary of Patit Pawan Sanghatana, said the party whose interests have been harmed due to the exposé by the RTI activist wants to silence the activist.
To reduce this threat to the activist, an ‘RTI Council’ should be formed as a depository of all information got by the activist. If this information is disseminated to other RTI activists and public by the council, then the aggrieved party cannot achieve its aim by killing the activist concerned and thus the threat to him would reduce.
Phadake’s suggestion was readily accepted by other RTI activists and it was unanimously decided to form the council during the meeting. The constitution of the council would be declared next week.
Velankar said the council would act as a depository where RTI activists should submit copies of their applications and the responses they have got to them. This information would be put on website and made available to public.
Kumbhar said the council would take care that the RTI activist fighting for the public cause “would not be left alone in his crusade”.
Jatar said that in the meeting, decision was taken to ensure that the investigation in the Satish Shetty murder case would be completed within a certain time frame and a case be filed in a fast track court. To achieve this objective, it was decided to intervene in the hearing of related case in the high court.
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