New Delhi: Orissa reported two alleged murders and nine attacks on people who used the Right to Information Act (RTI) for getting information from government, a nation-wide study by an international NGO said. The study has figures since 2005.
NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) compiled data of murders and assaults of RTI activists from across the country. The report said that since 2005, a total of 311 attacks took place on RTI activists resulting in the loss of 56 lives.
“Scores of RTI users have lost their lives for seeking information of public interest. Hundreds have been attacked, assaulted, harassed and threatened. Not all of them were seasoned RTI activists. Some were seeking information for the first time,” said CHRI.
When it comes to murders of RTI activists in the country, the BJP-ruled states of Maharashtra and Gujarat are the frontrunners.
In Maharashtra 10 alleged murders and two suicides of information crusaders have been recorded since 2005. Gujarat reported eight such alleged murders and one suicide during the same time.
Uttar Pradesh had six such alleged murders and one suicide, Karnataka and Bihar (five murders each), Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand (three murders each), Madhya Pradesh (one murder and one suicide) were reported. In Orissa two murders of RTI crusaders were reported while Delhi and Rajasthan witnessed one killing each.
In terms of attacks on information activists too, Maharashtra and Gujarat topped the list as 44 per cent of the assault cases on them were reported from these two states alone. These are followed by Delhi, Karnataka and Orissa.
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