Saturday, February 15, 2020

Petition to Odisha Information Commission for Protection of RTI Activists


To
Sri Sunil Kumar Mishra
State Chief Information Commissioner, Odisha
Toshali Bhawan,
Satya Nagar,
Bhubaneswar

Sub- Request for instituting an enquiry under Section 18 (3) of RTI Act into the facts and circumstances leading to coldblooded, barbarous murder of Ranjan Kumar Das, a prominent RTI user and activist and an anti-corruption whistle-blower, in the night of 31st January 2020 at Bhaganpur-Berhuan roadside under Marshaghai PS in Kendrapara district of Odisha along with murder and attack against RTI activists across the state.

 Sir,
We the following signatories belonging to Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan ( OSAA) hereby  bring  to your  kind  notice  the   case of gruesome murder of Ranjan Kumar Das, a renowed anti-corruption RTI Activist  and threats of  murder already issued to many RTI users and activists  in Odisha and earnestly seek  your  intervention and  urgent action in the matter.

1. As you know, RTI Act which came into full force w.e.f. 12th October 2005 is a unique law with a mandate   to bring transparency and accountability in the administration of the country with an objective inter alia to contain corruption in public sphere.

2. Since inception,   many RTI  Activists   working  under the banner  of  OSAA  have been  carrying  forward    a sustained campaign  to enable  the  common people to access and inspect information through the  use of RTI Act and Rules made there under. As a result, they have been able to expose a bulk of cases involving corruption and fraud by vested interests in nexus with pliable public servants.  Following the constitution of Lokayukta in Odisha, many of them are filing complaints before Lokayukta for seeking inquiry into the cases of fraud and corruption exposed by them through RTI exercises. .

3.  Being panicked by the exposure of and complaint against cases of fraud and corruption so carried out by the RTI activists, and more so by the order for enuiry into such cases issued by Lokayukta, Odisha, the vested interest groups, such as dishonest contractors, business houses and corporate honchos have forged a grand alliance with  corrupt officials and police personnel to attack and exterminate physically the anti-corruption whistle-blowers so as to systematically stamp out any trace of RTI Activism that still survives in the state. 

4.  For your kind information, within last couple of years, apart from the murder of some RTI activists including that of Ranjan Kumar Das, many  RTI Activists across the state have been subject to physical attacks like  merciless beating, forceful confinement and  permanent disablement

5.  On 10th December 2019, Sri Abhimanyu Panda, RTI Activist of Kandhamal district who has exposed several cases of  corruption in PDS and construction of roads under State RD Department and filed  a number of appeals/complaints in the office of Information Commission  was brutally murdered at gunpoint near  his residence in the early morning. After a lot of protest was raised at local and state level, the police arrested two Supari Killers along with other two  suspects involved in his murder. But the conspirators  who masterminded this murder are still at large in connivance of the local police, who have deliberately refrained from arresting  them.

6. The latest incident of such murder took place on 31st January 2020, when  Ranjan   Kumar Das, a leading RTI Activist based in Kendrapara district was cold-bloodedly killed in the dead of night and thrown at roadside near his village, under Marshaghai Police Station in Kendrapara district. Though more than 10 days has passed, the police have not yet arrested or interrogated any suspect, let alone conduction of  any inquiry worth the name. We strongly suspect that the Police under the invisible pressure of the  local political lobby and vested interest groups are trying to tinker with the investigation including the post-mortem report so as to hush up the whole truth about a well-conspired murder of Ranjan Kumar Das.

7. Sir, the increasing spree of  threats to and murder of RTI Activists has frightened many RTI Activists and their parents to refrain from using  RTI Act to fight against corruption. As a result  the RTI Activists are  seen under pressure not to pursue  their  RTI Applications, First Appeals and Complaints/SA cases already lodged around  the cases of corruption and fraud  in the interest of the  common people.  

8.  Needless to say, under the RTI Act, Information Commission is the  ultimate custodian and arbiter of the law and as such empowered to ensure  its effective implementation of it at national level or at state level, as the case may be.  At the other end, RTI Activists are  working   relentlessly to awaken the people  about  their rights and obligations to  bring transparency and accounability in the machinery of administration . as required under a democratic polity. Thus, both Information Commission and RTI Activists supplement and complement each other for effective implementation of RTI Act.

9.  In view of the above, it should be an abiding concern of the  Information Commission to see that the life and dignity  of the RTI users and RTI activists be  protected from the offensives mounted by vested interests of all sorts from within and outside the Government 

10.                   We, therefore  request the esteemed Commission  to intervene  in this matter by way of exercising its civil court powers to institute an enquiry  under Section 18 (3) of  RTI Act to lay bare the machinations of the vested interests that lay behind the recent wave of mortal attacks and threats carried out by the hired goons. Besides, the Commission using its powers under Section 25(5) of RTI Act is also earnestly requested to recommend to the Director General of Police to take stern action against the anti-RTI miscreants on one hand and to provide security and protection to RTI activists on the other.

11.                  Last but not the least, we  also fervently request  the Commission to  take up  all  cases of Complaints/ Second Appeals filed  by the recently  murdered Abhimanyu Panda of Kandhamal  and Ranjan Kumar Das of Kendrapara  and adjudicate   the said   cases  on merit and  direct the  concerned Public Authorities   to put  the concerned information on  their  respective websites and also  to impose  penalty  on the concerned PIOs under  Section 20  of the RTI Act.

Looking forward to your well thought response in this matter,

Yours  sincerely

Pradip Pradhan
State Convener

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