An Indian right to information activist, Rajan Ghate, began a hunger strike July 16 to protest the failure to appoint a chief information commissioner and other commissioners in the state of Goa.
Ghate received support July 18 from Vivek Velankar, a Maharashtra RTI activist, who visited him at Azad Maidan, according to an article in The Times of India.
Velankar assured Ghate and Goa RTI Forum members that he would inform national RTI figures of the situation. “Let the entire nation know that it’s been a year since Goa had its CIC and SIC,” he added, the Times reported.
Ghate told the media that on April 23 the Goa Chief Minister promised to appoint the information commissioners in a month’s time and that recently the minister has said he is not bound by a deadline.
Court Notes Lack of Appointments
In related news elsewhere in India, a court in Uttar Pradesh July 18 said the government has failed to appoint commissioners despite an April 15 court order to do so by July 15, the Times reported.
The court noted that about 45,000 cases were pending before the information commission.
The government is seeking an extension of time.
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