By IANS,
New Delhi : Over 50 Right to Information (RTI) activists Thursday held a sit-in against Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah outside his office in south Delhi to demand the transfer of the health department to another commissioner.
“For the past four months, we were demanding that Habibullah transfer the health department from IC (Information Commissioner) Padma Balasubramanian to another commissioner. However, even after repeated assurances, he never took the decision,” said Arif, a protestor.
Besides Habibullah, the four ICs are A.N. Tiwari, O.P. Kejriwal, M.M. Ansari and Balasubramanian.
The activists, who were protesting, were working on health issues in hospitals across the capital.
Arif alleged: “She is biased towards government officials and never takes any strict against them even if it can be taken under the RTI law.”
“We demanded that health department be given to either Kejriwal or Habibullah should see it himself,” he added.
The protesters said they had decided that they would not leave the CIC office till Habibullah takes action.
“Instead, they ignored our demands and continued their work. Now, all the commissioners have gone home and officers are threatening that if we will not go, they would close the office tomorrow (Friday),” said another protester, Savita.
The protesters vowed to continue their protest till the time their demands were met and dispersed after the police were called.
Bibhav, another protester, said: “Even though we were protesting peacefully, they called the police. We will continue our protest everyday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. till the time our demands are met.”