New Delhi:
Concerned over a string of recent attacks on RTI activists across the country, the Central Information Commission (CIC) today stepped in, saying it is the duty of respective governments to take "urgent" steps to safeguard the life and liberty of the activists.
The Commission, the nodal body that that administers the Right to Information (RTI), also said that the government should put in place penal provisions to prevent and detect crimes against RTI activists.
The CIC's observation at its meeting comes after Shehla Masood, an RTI activist, was shot dead in August outside her home in Bhopal. Ms Masood had, in her last interview, accused Madhya Pradesh BJP's Vice President Anil Dave, Public Information officer Aruna Roy, BJP MLA Vishwas Sarang and Inspector Genaral of Police Pawan Shrivastava of threatening her over her RTI applications. All of them have denied this.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is currently handling the probe into the activist's death.
The meeting chaired by Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra resolved that if any complaint regarding assault or murder of an RTI activist comes before it, it "will examine the pending RTI applications of the victim and order the concerned department to publish the requested information suo moto on their web site as per the provisions of law."
"The Commission also resolves that it will take proactive steps in ascertaining the status of investigations and prosecution of cases involving information seekers and endeavour to have these processes expedited," the resolution said.
According to some estimates, at least 12 RTI activists were killed while many others attacked between January 2010 and August 2011.
Apart from Shehla Masood, Amit Jethwa from Gujarat, Dattatreya Patil, a farmer from Kolhapur and Shashidhar Mishra, a street vendor from Begusarai in Bihar were among those who lost their lives.
(With PTI inputs)