Cases of harassment and murder of RTI applicants are increasing across the country, and the biggest challenge in the upcoming years is to ensure their protection, according to a new report on the status of the implementation of the RTI Act.
The report by Transparency International India released on the eve of the RTI Day Monday said that in the last 15-16 years, at least 95-100 RTI applicants have been killed while 190 others attacked, while dozen committed suicide and hundreds of them reported being harassed from powerful lobby.
Besides, the Government does not maintain any data on the RTI activists and information seekers who lose their lives in the interest of the country, said the report titled ‘State Transparency Report 2021' by the Transparency International India (TII), a non-government organisation.
"The biggest challenge in the upcoming years is to ensure the protection of information seekers as cases of harassment and murder of RTI applicants is increasing across the country," it said.
Considering the increasing number of RTI queries and applications with several public authorities, there is a dire need to create an agreed template to make proactive disclosure more effective and informative, the report said.
"The situation of implementation has improved over the years, several micro level studies still point out a wide gap in the usage of the Act among urban-rural masses," said the report released on the eve of RTI Day.