Friends,
The Right to Information has made an impact on the lives and times of our country. The most important effect of the RTI Act has been the creation of a very large number of RTI Activists who saw this Act as a true weapon in the hands of ordinary citizen and took the baton to spearhead the movement for creation of an enlightened, redeemed and pulsating India. In a short span of five years these stupendous RTI Activists have done so much of good service to the Nation that is unthinkable. Some of these brave people were even forced to lay their lives and by making the supreme sacrifice. The National RTI Forum, working in the field of RTI activities, pays its regards to each of these “RTI Martyrs”. We have also decided to salute some of the RTI activists, who through their work and conduct, have made an indelible mark on the society and who have faced all kinds of hardships and difficulties in life for the sake of their personal vow and allegiance to the true implementation of the RTI Act. For this the National RTI Forum has decided to give three Awards every year to those RTI activists whose dedication, commitment and valour for the sake of the Right to Information distinguishes them from the rest of us. For this, we institute the “RTI Gallantry award”. There shall be three such awards to be named as Satish Shetty Gallantry award, Shashidhar Mishra Gallantry award and Lalit Mehta Gallantry award. Sri Satish Shetty, 38, an RTI activist from Pune (Mahgarashtra) had exposed many land scams in Maharashtra adversely affecting a very large number of powerful persons. This finally led to his murder on 13th January 2010 by unidentified men while on his morning walk. Sri Shashidhar Mishra, popularly known as ‘Khabri Lal’ and an activist from Begusarai (Bihar) had exposed scams in the welfare schemes at the local panchayat and block level, earning the wrath of many. He was shot dead by unknown assailants on 14th February 2010 while coming to his house Sri Lalit Kumar Mehta, 36, was a the Right to Food and Right to Work campaigner in Palamau, Jharkhand. He had done in-depth social audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) works in Palamau exposing corrupt practices. For this he was brutally murdered when he was on his way back. The three awards are open to all Indians. They shall be presented only to the Individuals and not to any organization or association. For this purpose, we have formed a 9 member Jury from the Forum with Utkarsh Sinha, our Vice President as the Chairman of this Jury. In addition to exploring its own sources, National RTI Forum also invites everyone concerned to send suitable propositions to it either at National RTI Forum, 5/426, Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow or at [email protected] or [email protected] . The last date for receiving the nominations/ propositions is 20th August, 2010 while the awards shall be announced on 1st September 2010. Regards, Dr Nutan Thakur, Convenor, National RTI Forum Lucknow # 94155-34525 www.nationalrtiforum.org
