Friends,
On Sunday (07/02/2010) IRDS Lucknow in
support with Manjunath Trust organized a Meeting at IIM Lucknow to remember Sri
Satish Shetty, the late RTI activist from Pune. Sri Shetty, who
was born in an ordinary family in Lonavla, Mumbai did his matriculation from
Bal Vikas Vidyalaya but did not pursue his higher studies as he was not really
interested in that kind of bookish knowledge. He used the Right to Information
Act many a times to expose corruption and to bring forth truth. Some of his
important works included irregularities in land acquisition by the Sable-Waghire
Company and IRB Infrastructure Developer in the IRB land scam case, Vaishali
Marriage Hall case, Ration Card Scam and
exposure of illegal Bungalow construction by a former president of the Talegaon
Dabhade Municipal
Council.
In the meeting,
organized many RTI activists and students of IIM Lucknow made their
participation. The meeting paid homage to Sri Shety. Serious objections were
raised about the fact that Sri Shetty was not provided security by the local
police despite his having specially asked for it. That too when it was
well-known that he was on target of many such persons whom he had exposed.
Those present in the meeting were really perturbed by this fact that life of a
person like Sri Shetty got lost because
of this apathy. Concerns were also raised about the progress in the
investigation so far. While 5 accused are said to have been arrested, yet as
per Sri Sandip’s version many of the
real culprits seem to remain untouched so far. It was hoped that with the High
Court’s persistent interference, truth might come out soon.
Of those present in the meeting IPS officer Amitabh Thakur spoke about Sri
Shetty and his great contributions. Utkarsh Kumar Sinha from CCS implored the
condition of the RTI activists in Lucknow. Vishal Gupta, FPM student, IIM
Lucknow spoke about Sri Manjunath, his contributions and his murder case. He
also spoke about the works done by the Manjunath trust so far. Rajhans Mishra
from IIM Lucknow spoke about the need to have a state-wide awareness about RTI
and its various facets. Mahendra Kumar
from Project Vijay narrated many of his personal experiences and hardships in
using RTI. Advocate Jagnarain Sharma severely criticized the fact that the main
accused of this heinous murder was an advocate and said that it is people like
these who give a bad name to the entire profession. Amit Kumar Pandey from
Lucknow University also paid his respect by saying that both Sri Shetty and Sri
Manjunath belonged to the same highest category of persons who sacrificed their
life for a great cause. RTI activist Akhilesh
Saxena said that there was an immediate need to form some kind of association
for aiding and assisting all RTI activists in their proper functioning. Hence a
decision was taken to form a “RTI Forum” where all the RTI activists shall be
brought together.
As a result
of this, “National RTI Forum” for all the RTI activists to be brought together
has been created. A yahoo group National RTI Forum” has also been created with
subscription email- [email protected] and message
email- [email protected]. This RTI Forum shall try to act as a
nodal body for all the RTI activists and activities. It shall look into all the
matters related with RTI activists in consideration, including their training,
guidance, support and security related aspects. A Facebook group by the name of
National RTI Forum has also been created. All of you are sincerely requested to
join these groups so that all of us join hands and act together in aiding and
assisting each other.
Amitabh Thakur, IIM Lucknow # 94155-34526
Dr
Nutan Thakur, IRDS Lucknow # 94155-34525
Utkarsh Kumar Sinha, CCS Lucknow # 99357-36877
Vishal Gupta, IIM Lucknow # 94530-12815
