'RTA no cover for HR violators'

Hyderabad, May 28: Andhra Pradesh State Information Commissioner R Dileep Reddy today said Human Rights violators could not take cover under the secrecy clause of the Right to Information Act in cases of violations and the affected citizens could invoke the provisions of the Act to get relief.

Rights of citizens to get acess to information relating to any human rights violations and corruption was fully protected by the Act, he said while releasing the Amnesty International Report, 2008 here.

About 300 million people, a quarter of the country's population, remained in abject poverty, Amnesty International Hyderabad Coordinator Ch Narendra said.

He said in Nandigram in West Bengal, private militia, allegedly owing allegiance to the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), and armed supporters of local organisations battled for territorial control, resulting in violation of human rights, including unlawful killings, forced evictions and denial of access to information to media and human rights organisations.

Former Nagarjuna University Vice-Chancellor C V Raghavulu lamented that the very same laws relating to land distribution were misused to acquire land from the poor and hand over the same to industries under the pretext of setting up Special Economic Zones SEZ).

The SEZs were a ''roaring success'' in China as an alternative livelihood was provided to those whose lands had been acquired, he said, alleging that the State Governments in India were trying to suppress protests with police force and deprive the livelihood of small and marginal farmers.

UNI