ET Plus Report
Jammu, Mar 17 : Right to Information, RTI activists of state have condemned the statement of Chief Information Commissioner GR Sufi where he had suggested that a provision be made in the Right to Information act so that any information or record remains open for public access only for three years.
Referring media reports, the activist said that Sufi had claimed that with this 3-years cap on the access to information, misuse of the act can be checked. He made this statement last week while he was speaking at a meeting at Dr Rafiq Zakaria Campus, Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
Strongly objecting to Sufi's assertion, in a joint statement issued by a dozen of RTI activists, they have expressed deep shock and displeasure over the unsolicited statement of Chief Information Commissioner GR Sufi and have termed it as a setback for the RTI Act.
"We strongly condemn any such advice and statement which is ultimately issued with a motive to curtail the rights of the citizens enshrined under the constitution." A person who is holding a Statutory Post and is duty bound to protect the rights of the citizens must restrain from issuing such statements.
In fact he (Sufi) should engage himself to further bring awareness amongst the masses to make proper use of RTI law rather than accusing the innocent citizens of misusing the act. These are mere allegations without any iota of evidence that act is being misused.
We the citizens, would not allow anyone to carry on Such unacceptable propaganda, which is not based on any material fact. The activists also said they would not hesitate to take on anyone who do not want to see a regime of transparency and accountability in the state and want to push us backward to the Monarchy.
The statement is endorsed by RTI Activists Balvinder Singh, Convener of Sangarsh RTI Movement, Raman Sharma, Advocate Nadeem Qadri, Deepak Sharma, Rahil Gupta, Advocate Vilakshan Singh, Dewaker Sharma, Darvinder Singh, PV Rawal,vice president Youth hostel of India, Kashmir div. Madan Mohan Sharma, Harasis Singh Kranti and Narotam Sharma. |
