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My Tryst With Right To Information Act

By Amrita Johri

06 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org

While filing an application under the Right to Information Act 2005 to ask for information regarding the perennial under construction Khel Gaon Marg, I had to figure out whether the road was under the jurisdiction of MCD or PWD. After much deliberation and frowning at the ceiling in an attempt to figure out the correct department, I decided to call up both the offices and ask them. Burdened with anecdotal accounts of being put on hold, while the hair begins to gray, I was pleasantly surprised when at the MCD office the phone was answered with a cordial "Goodmorning, MCD". Though ofcourse it didn't take long for the cordialness to be replaced by angry grunts and monosyllables when he realized that I wanted to file a RTI application. After unsuccessfully trying to dissuade me from filing the application, he finally asked me which road I wanted to file the RTI on. Upon hearing the name of the road, there was an almost palatable sigh of relief and he happily rattled off some zone, circle and district number at Shambhu Dayal Marg. My surprise at the sudden efficient response lasted only till he told me that the road was not under the jurisdiction of the MCD but under the PWD.

A few days later, I got a response from the PWD office. Excited at the prospect of finally finding a tool to initiate a turnaround in the attitude of the bureaucracy of our country, I opened the letter and read that they had scheduled an inspection of the records of the road at their office for the 4 th of October at 11 a.m. My clumsy imitation (I like to refer to it as an interpretation) of the Rang De Basanti jig with my too-sleepy-to-protest dog was rudely interrupted by my mother telling me that it was already the 5 th of October! Damn! Once again the government had found a way to give the law a slip. Disappointed but still hopeful, I have filed an appeal to the First Appellate Authority and am still awaiting a response.

The experience of working on the RTI through Satark Nagrik Sangathan- a citizens' group with a mandate to promote transparency and accountability in Government functioning- is riddled with such stories. From success stories, where the disempowered have used the RTI to enforce their rights to water, ration, pension or even education for their children in public schools to stories where the Government officials have found ways of circumventing the information asked for under the RTI Act- one ration shop owner, when ordered to paste the list of beneficiaries in his shop decided to put it at ceiling height in font 10! His justification was that the order did not define the height at which the list should be pasted.

The RTI has become an effective tool for our participation and empowerment in democracy and the proposed amendments to the RTI Act need to be strongly opposed by all sections of society, especially the youth to protect this lone tool in the fight for transparency and accountability in the way our Government works!

Moral of the story- Use the RTI, it's more effective and less cumbersome (though only just) than shooting old pot-bellied politicians out for their morning walk Rang De Basanti style!

Satark Nagrik Sangathan is organizing the first ever RTI Youth Festival on the 23rd of November 2006 to create awareness about the RTI act and to create pressure on the Government to discourage it from introducing the amendments. The festival will include events and competitions characteristic of any youth festival -- debates, street theatre, creative writing competitions, and Jam sessions etc and will also have activities that create awareness and support for the Right to Information – RTI training and a panel discussion. The festival will culminate in a rock-show by the popular rock band- Indian Ocean.

Amrita Johri ([email protected])

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