A citizen was attacked for requesting information about the progress of a road constructed at Subarna rural municipality in Nepal.
This statement was originally published on nepalpressfreedom.org on 9 October 2020.
A municipality chief and his officials brutally attacked a local citizen, Binod Kumar Yadav, for seeking information in Bara on October 8. Bara lies in Province 2 of Nepal.
As per the information provided by Freedom Forum’s representative Rajan Singh, Chief Mahendra Yadav, officer Nabin Kumar Srivastav and a political cadre, Ranjit Yadav, attacked the man for requesting information about the progress of a road constructed at Subarna rural municipality.
Yadav, also coordinator of a political party, was attacked while registering the RTI [Right to Information] application.
Talking to representative Singh, Yadav explained that he was denied information twice before and was even asked to pay Rs 10,000 to get the required information.
Freedom Forum condemns the incidents as it is a sheer violation of citizens’ right to information. Irrespective of being affiliated to any political party, Yadav is a citizen and every citizen has the right to seek information from the public authorities as guaranteed by Nepal’s constitution.
Hence, FF strongly urges the concerned authority to punish the attackers and facilitate the municipality authority to provide the information requested using RTI, thereby ensuring citizens’ right to information.
