Thursday, January 4, 2007 (Noida):
Noida's residents have joined in the campaign for justice in the serial killings.
They have filed ten Right to Information petitions hoping to speed up investigations.
"It is no good that people are just angry. They need to come out and file RTIs," said Lokesh Batra, resident, Noida.
Batra says that as a resident of Noida he was only too aware of Nithari's growing number of missing children.
But like many other residents, all he could do was watch. However, now he says he's had enough.
On Thursday he and several other residents filed for information under the
RTI Act, asking the Noida police, civic authorities and even the National Commission for Women what action they had taken to prevent the tragedy.
"We have asked the irrigation department as to when they had cleaned the drains," Batra said.
"If they had cleaned them earlier the bones may have been found and perhaps the culprits could have been caught earlier," he added.
RTI has been used effectively to challenge governments and the police.
Citizens of Noida, angry and anguished over the killings in Nithari, are now using the
RTI to try and get answers on why it took the deaths of so many innocents before the police came into action.
Under the Right to Information public authorities have to reply within one month.
Moreover, the residents say that they may then use the information to take the authorities to court.
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