It was on Saturday last that activist Amit Jethava had helped a team of geology and mining department file an FIR with Kodinar police against illegal limestone miners. The miners had recently looted mining equipment seized during a raid and Jethava had spearheaded a campaign against illegal mining in his area.
He shifted base to Ahmedabad a year ago. Jethava, apart from being an environment activist, had forayed into Right to Information (RTI) issues. He had started an RTI information desk in Khamba taluka in Amreli district.
Be it lion poaching, illegal mining, the famous Aamir Khan-chinkara poaching case, the appointment of information commissioners in Gujarat—Jethava used RTI and public interest litigations (PIL) as weapons to fight for public issues. In his latest case Jethava had dragged the state government to Gujarat High Court regarding the appointment of an ombudsman or Lokayukta for Gujarat which has been pending since 2003.
Jethava had also written to state vigilance commission seeking action against corrupt forest officials.
In the lion poaching case of 2007, Jethava was among the first to blow the whistle on the mysterious deaths of lions in Gir forest. He later campaigned against shifting of lions to the Kuno Palpur national park in Madhya Pradesh. In the Aamir Khanchinkara poaching incident Jethava had earlier filed a writ petition in HC seeking quashing orders against a Bhuj court which stayed an inquiry against Khan.
Since 2006 Jethava spearheaded the RTI campaign in Khamba. Every month he and his team would organise mass awareness programmes regarding the new law. From school students to retired employees, women and small traders had been using this new tool in his taluka to get their rights.
Jethava had spearheaded the campaign against rising case pendency in the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) due to lack of commissioners. It was on his petition that the HC directed the state government to complete the appointments within a stipulated time.
He again came to the rescue of thousands of RTI users by filing a writ petition in the HC and made the government accept Indian Postal Order (IPO) as one of the modes of payment to deposit fees while filing of RTI applications.
