Best kept secret
Better known as one of Goa's most prominent women's rights campaigners, advocate Albertina Almeida has a love-hate relationship with the Goa Right to Information Act (GRIA). Asked if she was on State Council for Right to Information, she says: "I am, and I'm not!' This confusion has been caused by the state government's ambivalent approach towards the law. Almeida was one of those named to the council meant to review the operation of the act, review whether citizens were getting "the fullest possible access to information', and work towards improving the accuracy of information available. But that body has hardly met. Goa's persistent political instability has been a convenient alibi for its non-functioning tenure.
"Neither has the council been formally dissolved, nor is it functioning,' says Almeida. She says its members learnt "informally' that the government had plans to change its members. "Certain politicians have never been keen on the GRIA,' she adds. Incidentally, the lawyer-activist herself had a nightmarish time in getting information from the Panaji municipality, over a wall being constructed in front of her ancestral home.
"They refused the information, saying it was