Awareness rally on Right to Information Act held
The event began at 10 am, led by the District Cooperative Officer (DCO) with active participation from staff of the DCO's office, divisional and sub-divisional cooperative offices, ADCC Bank, DCMS, and other cooperative societies in the district headquarters.
Carrying placards and raising slogans, the participants marched from the District Cooperative Officer's office to the Tower Clock Center, aiming to educate the public about the significance and use of the RTI Act. The rally highlighted citizens' right to access information and the importance of transparency in governance.
In addition to the district-level rally, as per the DCO's instructions, staff members of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) also organized similar awareness programmes at their respective office locations across the district.
District Cooperative Officer [Name not provided] also addressed the public via telephone, delivering an important message on the benefits and provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. She stressed the need for every citizen to be aware of their rights under the Act to ensure accountability and transparency in government departments.
The programme concluded with a pledge to promote awareness about the RTI Act and to encourage citizens to actively use it as a tool to safeguard democratic values.
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
14 years after Paramakudi riots, CBI refuses to disclose status of investigation under RTI Act
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has declined to share details of its probe into the 2011 Paramakudi riots under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Fourteen years after seven persons belonging to the Scheduled Caste were killed and many others injured in police firing and the violence that followed on September 11, 2011, at Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district the CBI's Special Crimes Branch in Chennai invoked exemption provisions of the Act to reject queries about the status of the case. The RTI Act petition was filed by C. Selvakumar, who sought copies of the FIR, names of investigating officers, details of accused persons, and information on whether any interim or final report had been filed in the case. In his response, the Chief Public Information Officer said: 'In view of the provisions under Section 8(1)(g), 8(1)(h) and Section 24 of the RTI Act, the requisite information cannot be provided to you and accordingly your application is rejected.' Mr Selvakumar's first appeal alleging the response was incomplete, false and misleading was dismissed by the First Appellate Authority, which upheld the CPIO's decision. He then approached the Central Information Commission (CIC). After hearing both parties, Information Commissioner Anandi Ramalingam ruled that the CBI was exempted from disclosure under Section 25 of the RTI Act. While closing the appeal, she directed the agency not to cite Section 8(1)(h) and Section 24 together to deny information. Enquiry commission's findings A one-man commission of inquiry headed by Justice Sampath had earlier concluded that the police opened fire in 'self-defence.' The report praised the officers for the 'admirable way' in which they handled the tense situation but criticised the conduct of some personnel after the riots, calling it 'disgraceful' and contrary to police standing orders, citing instances of rioters being beaten up. However, the State government rejected what it described as the commission's 'disparaging remarks' against the police. The firing occurred when large numbers of members of the Scheduled Caste assembled in Paramakudi to pay homage to their leader Immanuel Sekaran on his 54th death anniversary. Violence broke out after the arrest of Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) leader John Pandian, whose supporters demanded his release. The protest escalated, leading to riots, arson, injuries to policemen, and the subsequent firing. Prosecution sanction withheld Police sources said the CBI, which took over the probe on the orders of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, had sought the State government's sanction to prosecute certain officers. The then AIADMK government denied the request. As a result, the case has not yet been chargesheeted. It was not clear whether a departmental inquiry or disciplinary action was insisted any official for the high-handedness, some of which was captured on camera, in the riots, the sources said.
The Hindu
an hour ago
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185 people crossed a line
Outside his weathered bhunga, a circular mud hut with a thatched roof, on the outskirts of Zura camp — a sparse, sunbaked stretch of land in Gujarat's Kutch district — Sooroji Kanji Sodha, 70, exhales as if releasing 16 years of apprehension. 'This feels like a second birth,' he says, his voice steady but sombre. He and his wife, Taju Kaur, were recognised as Indian citizens on July 25, along with 183 other Pakistani nationals in Gujarat. In 2009, Sooroji left behind his janmabhoomi (the land of his birth) in Tharparkar district of Pakistan's Sindh province. The decision cost him nearly 40 acres of land, his livestock, and a way of life his family had known for generations. With his wife and eight children, he boarded a train to India in search of dignity and a better future, he says. 'Leaving my watan (country) was never easy,' Sooroji, who now earns ₹300 a day as a daily wager, says. 'But I did it for my children. Especially for my daughters.' The Sodha couple and others received Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA). The CAA Rules were notified in March 2024, just before India's Lok Sabha elections. The CAA provides a pathway to citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities (Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian) – both documented and undocumented – from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. Across Rajkot, Morbi, and Kutch districts, many say the wait for citizenship stretches well beyond a decade, forcing families to live in a constant state of legal and social limbo. A man in Morbi who also got Indian citizenship says, 'There we were a minority. Here, until we get our citizenship documents, we are no one.' Just before COVID-19 regulations came into force in March 2020, anti-CAA protests took place across India, claiming that it was discriminatory in nature against Muslims. The Bharatiya Janata Party that leans towards Hindutva and its allies were in power then. The same party is in power now, both at the Centre and in Gujarat. Minority report It was not just religious persecution and looting, Sooroji explains, but the limitations placed on their future as a minority that drove his decision. In his native region, most Rajput families bore the Sodha surname, making it difficult to find suitable matrimonial matches for his children, due to norms that discourage marrying within the same extended clan. 'In Pakistan, there were no Jadejas, no Parmars, no Nadodas for us to marry our children to,' he says, wrapping his yellow turban around his head. 'Those families are in India, not in Pakistan.' Zura camp, where Sooroji lives, was initially set up shortly after Partition in 1947 to accommodate Hindu refugees from the Sindh province. Over time, it has become home to those who migrated during later periods of unrest, especially around the 1971 Indo-Pak war. For many like Sooroji, life in the camp has meant living in limbo — waiting for citizenship, waiting to belong. Clutching his certificate, he says, 'I can now say I am Indian — not just in my heart, but on paper too. Now, I hope my children also get their citizenship based on my documents and can work in this country with pride.' Data accessed from the Directorate of Census Operations, Gandhinagar, reveals that 1,050 Pakistani nationals settled in Gujarat — 537 men and 513 women — are covered under the Act between July 2, 2024 and July 22, 2025. All of them are Hindus, with the highest number in Ahmedabad (433), followed by Rajkot (271), and Patan (133) districts. In addition, separate data from the Gujarat government shows that since 2018, up to 1,386 Pakistani nationals have been granted Indian citizenship through the discretionary powers given to District Collectors. Most of them travelled to India on a visit visa, with no intention of returning. They booked one-way tickets on the now-suspended weekly Thar Express, an international passenger train that ran between Bhagat Ki Kothi in Jodhpur in Rajasthan and Karachi Cantonment in Pakistan. Immigration and customs facilities were located at Munabao railway station on the Indian side. The service was suspended in August 2019 following a deterioration in diplomatic ties between the two countries, after the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status and reorganised the State into two Union Territories. Caste consciousness A six-hour drive from Zura camp, in Rajkot, Savitha Fufal, 44, a mother, is getting ready to head out for her wedding anniversary dinner with her husband Vishan and their son Jignesh, 12, on August 5. It is a quiet celebration, a far cry from the life she left behind over a decade ago, she says. In May 2013, just nine months into their marriage, Vishan, now a hotelier, decided to leave Karachi and move to India with seven family members, including Savitha, his mother, sister, and four relatives from his brother's family. Savitha's four siblings still live in Pakistan, and she keeps in touch with them regularly through video calls. Sitting in the small living room of their rented home, Savitha recalls the emotional weight of leaving her country. 'It was hard to leave,' she says, 'but living there wasn't easy either.' The couple initially came to India on a tourist visa and later applied for and kept renewing their Long-Term Visa (LTV). 'Things weren't safe there, especially for women. We lived in fear of theft, religious persecution and general insecurity. That's when we decided it was time to leave.' Savitha is one of four people who were granted citizenship under the discretionary powers of the District Collectors. 'I'm proud to call myself an Indian now,' she says with a smile. She adds that her husband's brother and his family eventually returned to Karachi after spending some time in India. 'They weren't comfortable here. They felt more connected to their relatives back home,' she says. Savitha remembers that she was not able to attend her father's funeral in 2015. 'I could only go in 2017, after we managed to get a visa for my son too,' she says. Her husband has never gone back. The family belongs to a community in India classified as a Scheduled Caste (SC). However, due to the absence of documentation, her son will not get any of the social welfare benefits that the community can claim. Another migrant-turned-citizen, Manoj Parmar, 49, who works at a petrol station in Rajkot, says he became aware of the caste system — and that his community falls under the Scheduled Castes — only after arriving in India. 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Once an application is submitted online, the applicant is required to appear before a District Level Committee headed by the Superintendent of Post Office as the designated officer. The committee also includes representatives from the NIC, IB, Railways, and the district administration. 'The process is usually completed within a couple of weeks, including antecedent verification by IB, but if there are errors in the application — such as mismatched names or issues with supporting documents — applicants are informed and asked to make the necessary corrections before resubmitting,' says an officer from the India Post in Bhuj. According to the official, 18 people from the Kutch district have been granted citizenship under the CAA so far, and another 97 applications are in the pipeline. 'District officials have informed us that now only 115 Pakistani nationals are in Kutch, including the 97 whose applications are currently pending. The rest have not applied yet,' the official adds. Waiting for the gates to open For the children of those who have waited for citizenship, life means growing up in a country they call home, yet don't belong. They cannot take admission in government schools, and have no access to reservations in education and jobs. Sending children abroad is complex. Sooroji's younger brother, Laxmansinh Sodha, 53, a graduate of Karachi Medical College with an MBBS degree, who now runs a clinic in Morbi, says he had hoped to send his son Mehtabsinh, 17, — who qualified for NEET — to Russia to study medicine, after facing issues with admission in India due to incomplete documentation. 'But that too didn't work out because he doesn't have an Indian passport.' His education shows he is from India, while his passport is from Pakistan. 'Now, we've enrolled him in an LLB programme at a private university here. His citizenship is still pending.' Laxmansinh migrated to India in November 2012 and was granted citizenship earlier this year. His first visit to India was in 1971, he recalls, when he was just six months old. During the Indo-Pak war, his parents fled to India and took shelter in the Zura camp for nearly three years. However, due to limited facilities at the camp and a lack of livelihood options, the family eventually returned to Tharparkar in Pakistan. 'I practised medicine there for nearly 10 years, and left everything behind and came to India, fearing forced conversions and attacks on Hindus,' he explains. Sitting beside him is Netsinh Sodha, 56, who once worked as a patwari (village accountant) in Tharparkar district. He left his government job and migrated to India with his wife and seven children in May 2014. Now settled in Morbi, he runs a cloth shop and is among those who have been granted Indian citizenship. While Netsinh welcomes CAA, he raises concerns about the implementation process, alleging that staff involved in handling applications often harass applicants. 'The Act clearly states that even a single document or visa entry stamp is enough to apply for citizenship under CAA, yet many officials lack clarity on the provisions. As a result, many migrants are facing unnecessary hurdles,' he says. 'Applicants are being forced to submit their forms five to 10 times over minor issues. This is something the government must urgently address.' He says many Hindus are still 'stuck' in the neighbouring country and are waiting for the authorities to start issuing visas again. In April 2025, after the Pahalgam attack, India suspended visa services to Pakistani nationals. Edited by Sunalini Mathew
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Banned but blooming: Bengaluru's endless flex problem
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