Blood on the anniversary

BY NANDITA JHA| IN Special Reports | 21/10/2015

Yahoo India

The Right to Information Act came into force on  October 12, 2005. Last week people across the country observed eight years of this Act in various ways.  But as if to remind us of the price that has been paid for the privilege this act confers, the same week saw yet another murder of an RTI activist. Ratansinh Chaudhary was  murdered on October 17  in Garamdi village in Suigamtaluka of Banaskantha district, Gujarat.

He was helping his friend Harkhabhai Ramjibhai in filing an RTI application to seek information on cash given to the flood affected  families in Garamdi and Khatau villages in July. The Times of  India reported that the query sought information under "proactive disclosure" by the district and panchayat authorities. The paper quoted a resident of the one of those villages as saying that the  RTI reply showed “that people who were not affected by the floods received cash doles worth Rs 55,000 and Rs 90,000 while the actual victims got just Rs 2,500."

Following this disclosure four people of Chaudhary's village apparently accosted him and beat him to death.

Those working on the RTI issue put the deaths so far  in ten years at 50, including Chaudhury. The estimates vary from 47 to 50. The Hoot tried very hard to dig up actual recorded deaths with names and came up with only 32.  Those who can supplement our list are requested to send us any additional information that they may have.

Our research shows the following year-wise and state-wise break up:

Deaths of activists

Year-wise total number of deaths of RTI activists

                                                                   Those who died

They are the martyrs whose killings underscore the powerful potential of the Right to Information Act to expose wrong doing at every level.