Index of National RTI Forum

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National RTI Forum has been formed with a sincere and genuine effort to bring all the RTI activists together for all the RTI activists and activities. It is a Forum to look into all the matters related with RTI activists, including their training, guidance, support and security related aspects.

The Forum is part of Institute for research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS) which is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act 1869. IRDS is registered with the Assistant Registrar, Societies and Chit Funds, Gorakhpur vide its order dated 01/06/1996. Since now, it has been renewed twice. The next date of renewal is on 01/06/2016.

Aims and objectives of the National RTI Forum are-

2. To make a sincere and genuine effort through this Forum to bring all the RTI activists together to work in a cohesive manner

10. To keep advocating for the further betterment of the legal provisions of the RTI Act

12. To do all such works as Seminars, work-shops, representations, public meetings etc. to fulfil the above needs

14. To give awards to the deserving RTI activists

The present members of the Executive Committee of IRDS are-
Serial No Name Address Designation Occupation

2. Utkarsh Sinha 2/204, Vivek Khand, Vice President Social Service
Gomti Nagar, Lucknow

3. Dr. Nutan Thakur 5/426, Viram Khand, Secretary Journalist and
Gomti Nagar, Lucknow Social worker

9. Dr Mukesh Mishra Shankar Sadan, J P Nagar, Member Lecturer
Garwar Road, Ballia

Amitabh Thakur- He is an officer of the Indian Police Service of 1992 Batch, UP Cadre. He is a B Tech from IIT Kanpur and is presently undergoing Fellow Program from IIM Lucknow

Utkarsh Kumar Sinha- He is the director of Center for Contemporary studies and Research, working primarily on Human Rights issues and Right to Food. He got his Masters in Defence Sciences of Gorakhpur University, currently undergoing his P Hd on Indo-Bhutan relations

Nutan Thakur- She is a social activist and Editor of a Hindi daily, Nutan Satta Pravah. She did her P Hd in Hindi on

Premchand and her D Litt on Agyeya. She has a book on Stri Vimarsh to her credit.

Raza Rizvi- He is a veteran journalist, lawyer and a social worker. He has been Editor of Hindi daily Trigut for the last 25 years. He got his Masters and L Lb from Lucknow University.

Amit Pandey- He is a Lecturer in the Lucknow University in the Women studies Department. He got his Masters and P Hd in Social work from the same place. He has to his credit many research papers on the same subject.

Khairullah- He is a journalist and social worker associated with many newspapers and magazines. He runs a highly respected Madarsa in Bailo in Gorakhpur. He did his studies from Gorakhpur University.

Puranjay Kumar- He is a business entrepreneur, engaged in many different ventures. He is a Bachelors in History from Mithila University.

Nirmala Rai- She is an educationist dedicating herself to teaching poor and needy children. She is Bachelor in Sanskrit and B Ed from Gorakhpur University.

Dr Mukesh Mishra- He is a lecturer in Archaeology in BSNB Degree College and an eminent archaeologist. He got his Masters and P Hd from Lucknow University. Presently he is working on an ambitious project of restoring glory of many forgotten sites.

In addition, we have an Executive Committee for the RTI Forum. Its members are-

Serial No Name Address Designation Occupation

2. Utkarsh Sinha 2/204, Vivek Khand, Vice President Social Service
Gomti Nagar, Lucknow

3. Dr. Nutan Thakur 5/426, Viram Khand, Convener Journalist and
Gomti Nagar, Lucknow Social worker

6. Ranjan Rituraj B-404, Dell Block, Member Lecturer
HRC Professionals’Hub, 1/2, Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram,Ghaziabad

7. Ajay Singh D3, Kendriya Vihar, Member Post Doctoral
Gachi Bauli, Hyderabad Fellow

9. Ganesh Mishra c/o Sri Subhash Mishra, Member Social worker
Basti District Bar, Basti

Brief Introduction of these members-

Amitabh Thakur- He is an officer of the Indian Police Service of 1992 Batch, UP Cadre. He is a B Tech from IIT Kanpur and is presently undergoing Fellow Program from IIM Lucknow
Utkarsh Kumar Sinha- He is the director of Center for Contemporary studies and Research, working primarily on Human Rights issues and Right to Food. He got his Masters in Defence Sciences of Gorakhpur University, currently undergoing his P Hd on Indo-Bhutan relations.
Nutan Thakur- She is a social activist and Editor of a Hindi daily, Nutan Satta Pravah. She did her P Hd in Hindi on Premchand and her D Litt on Agyeya. She has a book on Stri Vimarsh to her credit.
Abhai Kumar Singh- He is a senior lawyer in Lucknow specializing in criminal justice. He also provides legal advice free of cost to many needy persons through his Legal awareness camps. He got his Masters and Law degrees from Lucknow University.
Manoj Pandey- He is a Associate Professor in Law in the JN Degree College, Lucknow. He did his L Lb and L Lm from Lucknow University. He is presently working on his Doctoral work in Constitutional History.
Ranjan Kumar- He is a Associate Professor in an Engineering College in Ghaziabad. A B Tech from BIT Sindri, he is also associated with a large number of social and RTI related works.
Ajay Singh- He is currently undergoing his Post-doctoral fellow in Management. An MBA from Varanasi and P Hd in Marketing from Meerut University. His doctoral work related with Public Health was pathbreal
Angad Singh- He is the President of Society for Computer Education (SCADRA). He is a Masters in Social work and L Lb from Lucknow University and did his PG Diploma in HRM from IGNOU.
Ganesh Mishra- He is a political and social worker, for long associated with many social projects. He is successfully using the RTI Act for long to expose many startling facts. He is a Bachelor in Sanskrit from Allahabad University.

The Forum has its State’s representatives in each State. There are three kinds of State representatives. They are the State General Secretary, the Coordinator and the Counselor.

1. To be in-charge of the general functioning of the RTI Forum in the State
2. To be in regular correspondence and interaction with the National RTI Forum on all matters of relevance
3. To act as per the advice and requests made by the National Forum
4. To be in regular interaction with the State Coordinators and State Counselors
5. To appoint people, with the general concurrence of the State Coordinators and State Counselors, in honorary positions at the State level for the furtherance of the cause
6. To keep track of matters of relevance related with RTI, RTI activities and RTI activists and make suitable suggestions to the National Forum in all these matters

Roles and Functions of State Coordinators

1. To work in the overall guidance of the State General secretary and to assist him/her in the Forum’s work
2. To coordinate the activities of all the members, organizations and groups associated with the National RTI Forum and the State RTI Forum
3. To make a list of all such members, organizations and groups associated with the National and State Forum and to suitably amend it from time to time
4. To guide and direct these members, organizations and groups regarding different works related with RTI in the State
5. To assist and aid the General Secretary, along with the State Counselors, to make further honorary appointments to State Forums
6. To be in regular communication with the National Forum

Roles and Functions of State Counselors

1. To work in the overall guidance of the State General secretary
2. To help, aid, assist and counsel all the members, organizations and groups associated with the National RTI Forum and the State RTI Forum in theoretical and legal matters pertaining to RTI
3. To keep track of the happenings on the RTI front in the State and to intimate the National forum about them
4. To analyze the overall situation of RTI performance of the State government and also to analyze important individual cases
5. To analyze and study the overall performance of the State Information Commission and also to analyze important individual cases
6. To assist and aid the General Secretary, along with the State Coordinators, to make further honorary appointments to State Forums
7. To be in regular communication with the National Forum

So far we have our following State representatives-

Names of honorary General Secretary, State Coordinators and State Counselors of the National RTI Forum

What we do for the people-
1. Give guidance in framing and formulating petitions under RTI
2. Give continuous support to those who are trying to use the provisions of the RTI Act
3. Raise the voice of the RTI activists at all appropriate Forums and platforms
4. Provide suitable persons to send their RTI applications, in case they fear sending it in their own name due to a variety of reasons

Our contact Information-
IRDS- irdslucknow@gmail.com
National RTI Forum- nationalrtiforum@gmail.com
Amitabh Thakur, President- amitabhthakurlko@gmail.com, 94155-34526
Dr Nutan Thakur, Convener- nutanthakurlko@gmail.com- 94155-34525
Vinayak Garg- 098991-52435
Aniruddh Kumar Dwivedi- 99194-73960
Ashok Pandey- 94520-19409

Press Releases

Notice to the Chief election Commissioner in case of IPS officer Amitabh Thakur- How RTI helped the Officer

A legal notice has been issued by Abhai Kumar Singh (Advocate, High Court, Lucknow) against the Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India, New Delhi. It pertains to the two transfers of Amitabh Thakur, an IPS officer of 1992 batch. Amitabh Thakur was transferred twice by the Election Commission, once during the 2007 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh when he was posted as SP, Maharajganj and then in December 2007 when he was SP of Ballia district during the Lok Sabha bye-elections after death of Chandra Shekhar.

The legal notice by Abhai Singh says that Amitabh Thakur had asked certain questions from the Election Commission through his letters dated 19/03/2009 and 04/08/2009. The questions were as follows-
1. Why was Thakur transferred from Maharajganj and Ballia respectively
2. Were any written and/ or oral complaints made against him in the Commission ?
3. Were such written/ oral complaints enquired into at any stage?
4. What were the results of these enquiries?
5. Were there any other information with the Commission to make such a decision?
6. Was any complaint made against Amitabh Thakur by the Election Observer at both the places respectively?
7. Any other specific reason for which he was transferred?

Amitabh Thakur got replies from the Commission through letters dated 7/07/2009 and 10/09/2009 from Varinder Singh, Public Information officer, ECI. The reply of the PIO said-
1. There were no written complaints against Amitabh Thakur in either of the districts
2. There were no oral complaints against Thakur either
3. There were no other complaints on record from any other source
4. No complaints were received from the Election observers against Thakur at either of the two places

After receiving these replies, Amitabh Thakur sent letter on 21/12/2009 requesting the Election commission to clarify why exactly was he transferred from each of these districts when as per the Commission’s own reply, there were no complaints/ enquiry against him in the Commission. He particularly asked why his name was particularly chosen among the list of all the officers. He sent another letter on the same matter on 18/02/2010. When he got no reply till date, he approached Abhai Singh, the advocate who has sent this legal notice asking them to provide the reasons to his client Amitabh Thakur within a period of 15 days.

It would not be out of place to mention here that Thakur had previously also moved to the high Court, Lucknow Bench through writ petition No 1829(MB) of 2007 Amitabh Thakur, IPS vs ECI and others which the High court had dismissed on the grounds of Alternate remedies available according to L Chandra Kumar judgement of the Supreme Court.

Press Note

A matter of great seriousness and urgent follow-up has come to our notice. This relates to the PGP Admission process of IIM Lucknow this year. Through reliable sources, it has come to our notice that the PGP Admission process has been drastically changed. Now in an interview/Group Discussion(GD) team, no person taking the interview/GD knows about the names of the other persons. It is said that this makes the entire process less transparent and more prone to manipulation. This helps the key persons to make any changes in the team members for Interview/GD for the PGP Exam process as per their own suitability. Also the checking/ evaluation process of the Essay/ write-up written by the examinee has been changed. While previously it was examined right at the center of examination then and there, now all the essay/ write-up shall be brought at the Institute and centrally evaluated. No one knows whether these facts have been properly discussed and what could be the reason for such drastic changes at policy level. But, there are people who are quite skeptical of these changes.

This complaint has been obtained by the National RTI Forum. RTI Forum has taken this matter seriously and its member Anupam Pandey has sought information under the RTI Act from the Public Information Officer of IIM in this regards. At the same time, the Forum has also requested the Ministry of Human Resource Development to look into this matter and take appropriate action.

The National RTI Forum organized a two hour Seminar on 20th March 2010 at IIM Lucknow, Sitapur Road, Lucknow from 11 AM to 1 PM. The topic of the Seminar was- “RTI Act and the view of the State Legislators”. The people were welcomed by Dr Manoj Pandey, Secretary, LUACTA. It was followed by an introductory presentation on the RTI Act and its various facets by me. I particularly emphasized upon the goal of transparency and accountability of the RTI Act. I also dwelt at length about the section 8(1)(a) to 8(1)(j) of the Act under which various Information can be withheld and the way these sections are presumably misused by the public authorities in denying information. I quoted three examples of Satish Shetty, Poone, Shashidhar Mishra, Begusarai and Venkatesh of Eeranapalya who have been murdered exactly for being RTI activists calling them “RTI Martyrs”.

This was followed by Anup Sanda, MLA, Sultanpur. He narrated his own experiences as a social worker and was quite in consonance with the woes of the RTI activists saying that there was a huge delay in the Information being disseminated to the RTI activists. He emphasized upon the need for having much stringent penalties for the public authorities violating the provisions of law. Sri Siddharth Shankar (MLA, Malihabad) said that RTI is a Fundamental Right. He said there was a huge red-tapism that needed to be removed immediately. He wanted the officials to be personally responsible for the derelictions. Vivek Singh (MLA Banda) said that with RTI Act even the common masses have acquired the rights previously limited to the National and State Legislators. RTI is the ultimate weapon to control the belligerent MLAs and MPs. He said that when even the Hon’ble Supreme Court had to bow down before the might of the RTI Act then what is to be said of the ordinary public authorities. Sanjeev Dwivedi, MLC emphasized upon the relevance and importance of RTI Act in day-to-day life of common masses. Yashwant Singh (MLC) said that RTI is a big weapon and we must all use it properly. Mata Prasad Pandey, ex Speaker of UP Vidhan Sabha said that he as a part of legislature would try his best to make amendments wherever there are lacunae in the Act. He wanted such changes to be made which would make its provisions more binding over the public authorities and more detrimental.

Among those present, Pooja Sikera asked about the possibilities of making RTI more effectively in the rural areas. RTI Activist Akhilesh Saxena came up with many important suggestions for amendments where he felt the Act was lacking behind. Mahendra Singh of Project Vijay asked about some issues pertaining to a private University related to RTI Act. Dev Dutt Sharma raise issues related to the present State Election Commissioner Ranjit Pankaj and asked the State legislator’s support on that.

More than hundred RTI activists and social workers participated in the Seminar.
Dr Nutan Thakur, Convenor of the Forum, thanked the audience in the end asking them all to work for the cause of RTI in a better way. She also requested the present State legislators to do something in the way of increasing the number of employees in the State Information Commission so that the burden of the SIC is reduced to which the Legislators agreed and assured to bring this matter in the forthcoming Assembly session. Dr Mukesh Mishra conducted the program.

Press Note

Today 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.

Sri Shetty was brutally attacked and murdered by some assailants at a newspaper stall at Talegaon Dabhade on Januaryb 13, while he was on his morning walk. On January 14, the Bombay High Court took suo moto cognizance of his murder of Satish Shetty. It was a historic decision and one of the rarest kinds. Ironically Sri Shetty had applied for police protection about ten days before his murder but did not get the required protection. So far 5 out of 6 supposed assailants have been arrested in the case, including a lawyer, Vijay Dabhade (42) whose illegal constructions Sri Shetty had exposed. Not satisfied with the investigation so far, his brother Sri Sandip has moved the High Court of Bombay in a PIL already pending there.

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. This RTI Forum shall 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. In addition Dr Mukesh Mishra of Archaeology Department, Anupam Mishra of Agrani Foundation and other students of IIM also expressed their views. Finally Dr Nutan Thakur from IRDS Lucknow thanked everyone.

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