RTI activists from the city gathered in Santacruz to protest the RTI Amendment and take the fight forward on Sunday. The meeting was held at Air India Modern School at Santacruz. The activists planned to ask citizens to fight at their level as well till the amendments are revoked. Among those who attended the meet were Shailesh Gandhi, former central information commissioner, Anjali Damania, former AAP member and Preeti Sharma Menon, AAP, Ravindra Ambekar, journalist, advocate Vijay Kurley, Kamalakar Shenoy and Anil Galgali among others. Gandhi said, "If the RTI act weakens, the future governments will take advantage of it." RTI was needed so that other rights are not affected. Gandhi added, "We are asking citizens to do their own thing while looking to take the signature count to five lakh. Another meeting is planned to decide the long term measures that can be taken. There is a view of approaching court but first, we will see if there is any point in doing so." Damania said that RTI was needed to fight government at all levels. She said, "RTI enables a citizen to scrutinize the government and to access information. Asking questions is our fundamental right and no government has the right to deny it." The amendment now brings the tenure and salary of information commissioners under government and can be changed at any time. Galgali said, "The government is conducting a new experiment to put direct pressure on the information commissioners so that people cannot exercise their right to information." Preeti said, "Amendment looks to control information commissioners by giving them post-retirement benefits. The government has taken a daring step to amend the RTI which will further enable them to attack other rights. We are looking at a scary time for democracy where institutions are being compromised and RTI was the most reliable institution which brought transparency and made the government democratic."

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