CHENNAI: A day after RTI activist and Satta Panchayat Iyakkam’s Siva Elango was arrested and jailed for sitting in a chair while attending an RTI plea hearing, SPI activists and Lok Satta Party cadre organised a symbolic ‘chair lifting’ protest, here on Friday.
The protest, which took place near the State Information Commissioner’s office at Teynampet, saw some 150 cadre raising chairs and shouting slogans against SIC chief KS Sripathi, demanding his removal. Sripathi has received flak for his handling of the department, with activists slamming the ‘opacity’ he has imposed on what was supposed to be a transparent body.
D Jagadheeswaran, general secretary of Lok Satta Party, told Express that the protest was aimed not only attracting attention to the injustice meted out to Siva Elango in what he claimed to be a foisted case.
“The SIC must provide seating facility to anybody who appears for an RTI hearing. It is high time to question and remove the existence of meaningless colonial era practices,” he said. The protest, which lasted for about half hour, ended with the arrest of 90 cadre, who were released later in the evening.
Meanwhile, SPI said that Siva Elango’s bail petition has been reviewed and a favourable decision passed on it. “We expect him to be released on bail on Saturday morning,” said an SPI activist.
