Activists sit-in against chief information commissioner
As Reported in in ThaiIndian.com July 24th, 2008 - 10:13 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Over 50 Right to Information (
RTI) activists
Thursday held a sit-in against Chief Information Commissioner (
CIC)
Wajahat Habibullah outside his office in south Delhi to demand the
transfer of the health department to another commissioner. "For the
past four months, we were demanding that Habibullah transfer the
health department from IC (Information Commissioner) Padma
Balasubramanian to another commissioner. However, even after repeated
assurances, he never took the decision," said Arif, a protestor.
Besides Habibullah, the four ICs are A.N. Tiwari, O.P. Kejriwal, M.M.
Ansari and Balasubramanian.
The activists, who were protesting, were working on health issues in
hospitals across the capital.
Arif alleged: "She is biased towards government officials and never
takes any strict against them even if it can be taken under the
RTI
law."
"We demanded that health department be given to either Kejriwal or
Habibullah should see it himself," he added.
The protesters said they had decided that they would not leave the
CIC
office till Habibullah takes action.
"Instead, they ignored our demands and continued their work. Now, all
the commissioners have gone home and officers are threatening that if
we will not go, they would close the office tomorrow (Friday)," said
another protester, Savita.
The protesters vowed to continue their protest till the time their
demands were met and dispersed after the police were called.
Bibhav, another protester, said: "Even though we were protesting
peacefully, they called the police. We will continue our protest
everyday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. till the time our demands are met."
Activists sit-in against chief information commissioner - Thaindian News