By Pradip Pradhan in Bhubaneswar, February 10, 2015 :

The chilling murder of Krupasindhu Sahu, a crusader against corruption from a small village under Niali block, exposes too many chinks in the armour of the state government.

Ironically, the murderers chose the Republic Day to kidnap Krupasindhu, who was n
ot only a farmer but also an enthusiast Right to Information [RTI] activist. He was using RTI as a tool to expose rampant corruption and irregularities in implementation of various welfare schemes of the government supposed to uplift the poor.

After two days of frantic search across the region, Krupasindhu’s wife lodged a FIR in Niali police station about his missing husband.  However, his wife had received a call from unidentified mobile number demanding Rs 30 lakh and three kg gold for release of her husband.

On January 31^st Krupasindhu’s dead body was recovered from a river bed near the village.

It was clear that Krupasindhu was kidnapped and murdered by a Supari killer. Krupasindhu was survived by his mother, wife and two children.  The family without an adult male member now is totally ruined after his death.

Krupasindhu had submitted RTI Application to the office of Deputy Director, Agriculture, Cuttack seeking information about utilisation of fund sanctioned under Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India scheme (BGREI) and the list of the beneficiaries. After a lot of persuasion, he succeeded in obtaining the information from Public Information Officer.

This information exposed the involvement of important and political influential people in misappropriating lakhs of rupees of BGREI fund through fake beneficiaries. This has enraged the vested interests and created who planned a plot to get rid of Krupasindhu through Supari Killer.

This is not a single case of RTI activists under scanner by the powers-that-be in the state. On December 28, 2014, Ganeshwar Panda, RTI Activist, Berhampur was murdered   in broad day-light by miscreants. He was also in the forefront in exposing irregularities in government’s flagship development schemes. More than 30 RTI Activists have been beaten up and received threats of murder in the state.

Most of the RTI activists are fighting lonely battles in the absence of any collective forum or organisation for their cover. More often than not, these activist anguished by corruption and other illegal activities around them take up the cudgels and get targeted by the powerful nexus of bureaucrats, contractors, politicians and businesspersons.

In fact, RTI Act mandates to contain corruption in administration.  Though the RTI applicants and activists serve as self-inspired whistleblowers to cleanse the existing system of governance of its manifold malaises including corruption and maladministration, the Right to Information Act, 2005 provides as such no inbuilt mechanism for their protection in the face of physical attacks or malafide litigations hurled against them.

In the past many RTI applicants owingto their relentless efforts to ‘promote transparency and accountability’ in the working of the public authorities have been subject to a variety of persecutions including murder, merely for their lawful act of seeking information.  Many of them face threats and assaults of various kinds on a regular basis. Even common people seeking information from their Gram Panchayat or the local administration are made to suffer gruelling humiliation and harassment by the vested interests, quite often in connivance with the Govt. officials.

Under section 6(2) of the RTI Act, the identity of RTI Applicant is supposed not to be exposed as the Applicant is required to produce his contact address only. But the State Government has made   an anti-people, ultra vires Odisha RTI Rules, 2005 which compels an RTI Applicant in Odisha to disclose his personal identity, which is clandestinely leaked to the miscreants through the PIO and his colleagues serving in a public office.

The Odisha Rules in the name of proof of Citizenship requires submission of a copy of voter card or passport to be attached to the RTI Application. Besides, it also requires an RTI applicant to disclose such personal details as permanent address and name of father/spouse along with contact address to which PIO’s reply would be sent.

As is well known Section 6 (2) of RTI Act allows only the mention of contact address while categorically prohibiting the disclosure of personal details. The Calcutta High Court, while disposing the Writ Petition No. 33290(w)/2013 has also given a direction to Central Government and all State Governments not to demand proof of Identity of RTI Applicants.

Accordingly, the then commissioner cum secretary, information and public relation department, Odisha government, (the nodal agency for RTI in the State), P K Jena had also issued a Circular to secretaries of all departments asking for compliance to the Order of Calcutta High Court. But, despite repeated demand by the civil society for amending the Odisha RTI Rules 2005 in line with the provisions of RTI Act and in particular to comply with the above direction for doing away with the mala fide provision for disclosure of personal identity of RTI Act, the same is yet to notified in official Gazette.

As is well known, the disclosure of identity of an RTI Applicants as mandated under Odisha RTI Rules 2005 provides ample opportunity to the corrupt officials and vested interests to identify the RTI applicants and to get rid of them either by way of bribing or by resorting to murderous steps as was noticed in the tragic killing of Krupasindhu and Ganeshwar Panda.

Let the latest cases of heinous murder serve as a wake-up call to both government and civil society at large to ensure that the utterly anti-people and pro-mafia Odisha RTI Rules 2005 notorious for its provisions ultra vires the parent Act is done away with at the earliest.

[Pradip Pradhan is the state convener of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan]