Lawyer Abid Jeelani would spend his evenings helping people draft queries under the Right to Information law which allows citizens to deman...
Lawyer Abid Jeelani would spend his evenings helping people draft queries under the Right to Information law which allows citizens to demand information from the government. “Everyday somebody would approach me through someone’s reference,” said the 28-year-old who practices in Ganderbal district court in Kashmir. “I would finish my court work and then help them out.”
But over the past year, the visitors have stopped coming. “I think people realise they won’t get the information they want to,” he said.
Activist Sheikh Ghulam Rasool would spend thousands of rupees accessing government documents through RTI law – he recalls spending Rs 12,000 on getting photocopies once.
“Such was the zeal that Rs 12,000 didn’t matter,” said the 44-year-old who heads the Jammu and Kashmir RTI movement. “I knew that the information we will get would be more valuable than the money.”
In 2013, for instance, the movement revealed through RTI that 66 civilians had died in explosions on pasture land in Budgam district that the Indian Army had been using as an artillery firing range since 1964. The revelation had sparked public anger. The next year, the Jammu and Kashmir government declined the army’s request to renew the lease.
But Rasool is now less hopeful of such breakthroughs. This January,...
