At least a 1,000 people, mostly Delhi residents, will send RTI applications to the Prime Minister's Office over the next week seeking answers to long-standing questions regarding the Bhopal disaster.

The mass RTI campaign will also ask the Prime Minister for information regarding the status of request by padayatris for an appointment with the Prime Minister. About 50 people, who marched 800 km from Bhopal and reached Delhi on 28 March, had alerted the PMO that they wanted to meet Prime Minister as early as 20 February. Since then, more than 1,700 people have sent faxes to the PMO in support of the Bhopal padayatris.

"It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister could not find any time in the last two months to spend on people who have been neglected by the government for two decades. As a citizen, I want to know what the PM has done to ensure clean water in Bhopal, to clean up toxic wastes and hold the guilty companies responsible since he last promised the people two years ago that he would do all this," said RTI campaigner Arvind Khejriwal addressing a Press conference at the end of the first day of the RTI campaign. Leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party Abani Roy also filed an RTI application on Saturday.

"The blatant disregard shown by the Prime Minister's Office to citizens' right to information is shameful, and speaks volumes about the PM's attitude to transparency and accountability," said Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=BHOPAL&file_name=...