‘Public nuisance’ tag on anti-quarrying activist

The Kerala government has rescinded a resolution passed by a village panchayat seeking to declare a female environmental and right-to-information (RTI) activist as ‘public nuisance’ following her campaign against the granite quarries in her village using the RTI Act.

The Principal Secretary to the Local Self Government Institutions scrapped the resolution and asked the Secretary of the Pallichal panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district to appear before him to give an explanation.

The panchayat council had in November last unanimously passed a resolution recommending to the Kerala State RTI Commission to declare VV Vijitha, a 33-year-old mother of two, as ‘public nuisance.’ Her offence: she had sent a series of RTI queries to the panchayat office seeking information about the legal status of quarries on a hill in the panchayat area. The resolution had the support of the Left Democratic Front and the BJP in a panchayat ruled by the United Democratic Front.

Vijitha, as a member of an environmental protection group that launched a campaign against illegal quarrying, had shot off several RTI queries. The panchayat, whose president is an accused in a vigilance case for granting permission to illegal quarries to operate, found Vijitha’s frequent queries irksome and sought to get her declared as a ‘public nuisance’.

Following the passage of the resolution, Vijitha was arrested on a complaint by the panchayat authorities who alleged that she had caused damage to the panchayat office. Vijitha had distributed flyers to the villagers asking them to get the quarrying stopped. This was made out to be an attack on the panchayat office and she had to spend three days in jail before being released on bail.

Vijitha petitioned the Chief Minister as well as the RTI Commission against the resolution. The commission had let it known that it had no powers to declare a person as public nuisance and that the panchayat had no right to seek such an action.

The environmental group campaigning against quarrying in the hill has for long alleged that many members of the panchayat council were beneficiaries of the quarrying. They staged agitations outside the panchayat office demanding that the entire panchayat council members be declared as public nuisance.

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