Thugs hired by corrupt shop owners are attacking activists demanding proper distribution of subsidised food grains even as the Right To Information Bill remains operable in just nine of the country's 28 states, activists say.

"The attacks are getting bolder and more deadly," Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy told a news conference while presenting a 20-year-old activist who was attacked by knife-wielding goons who tried to slit her throat a few days ago.

All because the young girl, Santosh, is a member of Parivartan, an organisation that urges poor people to enforce the Right To Information in ration shops and see that shopkeepers do not siphon off the subsidised materials, including food grain, and sell it in the black market.

"It is not enough to have the law. The law must be enforced by the law keepers," said Roy.

Added former prime minister V.P. Singh: "We have come to the media to highlight the issue. There have been so many complaints but there is so little government action."

The bill has now been tabled before parliament and is due to come up for discussion. If passed by both houses and ratified by the president, it becomes a central law.

At present, each state government is free to ratify it as law.

Jean Dreze, an economist who runs a right-to-food campaign, has calculated that vast amount of food grains are stolen from the ration shops.

It varies from 70 percent in Uttar Pradesh to 21 percent in Orissa. "At an average, at least 50 percent of the grains are stolen," said Dreze.

And all this continues in complete collusion with local authorities and the police.

"When complaints are filed, the police never act upon them saying that the food department people must lodge a complaint," said activist Arvind Kejriwal.

"And the department people never complain because they are hand-in-glove with the shopkeepers and get a cut of the theft. Even when cases of violence are reported, there is little or no action."

But Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan argued that the reasoning of the police is completely fraudulent. "Stealing from ration shops is a cognisable offence and they don't need authorities to complain. Anyone can complain and there should be action."