RTI activist Aruna Roy says unilateral law enforcement robs right of citizens

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Sep 18, 2019: RTI activist and Co-Founder of Mazdoor Kissan Shakti Sanghatan Aruna Roy said that impunity in political system has resulted in democratic institutions loosing their autonomous status.

 

She was delivering the Fr Claude D’Souza and Fr Ambrose Pinto Memorial Lecture at St Aloysius College in Mangaluru on September 17,  Tuesday.

Activist Roy highlighted that Freedom of Speech and RTI had legitimised the right to ask questions. But the amendment introduced by the current government to the RTI Act, has put right of people to question the government at stake.

“RTI Commission has lost its status which was equal to that of an Election Commission and the RTI Commissioner is not more than a government servant”, she said.  She lamented that these days laws were enforced upon people by the Legislature without any debate.

Activist Roy said that after decades old fight demanding social audit in the works carried out by government departments, the Government of Rajastan has now launched an

open portal to make the information on government transactions accessible to the public.  Calling upon people to question the moves of the government, she said if the people say that politics is not their business, then they are hurting themselves.