Bedi asks Lankans to launch fight for RTI

COLOMBO: Asking Sri Lankans to launch a movement for right to information to check corruption, India's first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi has warned that unless this menace is checked, it could turn a nation to a 'failed state'.
   
"The launch of a movement to fight for right to information in Sri Lanka can be the first step towards ending corruption, and civil society must take the lead for the same," she said addressing a function here.
   
"When corruption persists in any country, it becomes a failed state", she said after giving away the National Integrity Awards to commemorate the UN Anti Corruption Day on Sunday.
    
The event was organised by the Transparency International, the global organisation leading the fight against corruption.
    
Bedi, the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, said the Transparency International reports pointed out that politicians top the list on corruption, followed by police, judiciary, education and medical services.
   
"These are the five areas of rampant corruption," Bedi, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, told the gathering.
   
The main objective of the National Integrity Awards was to recognise the courage and determination of many individuals fighting corruption and to make such people a source of inspiration to the anti corruption movement, the Transparency International said in a statement.