Right to information Act 2005, is a testimony to the maturity and resilience of Indian Democracy and its citizens. This indeed has open a new chapter in citizen-government relationships.
It is a powerful tool available to the citizens to be utilized for their benefits and society around them. It's a tool that can be used to know the truth from the government machinery. It's a tool that can be put to use for forcing the government babus to do their duties right. It's benefits and uses are immense. For its real power, one has to use it.
In today's news, 2 news items were reported. In both instances the ordinary souls used the RTI for their own reasons - one for saving himself from brutal police injustice and other one for forcing the civic authority to attend to his complaints.
- Use three letters to transform your city - Courtesy bangalorebuzz.blogspot.com
http://bangalorebuzz.blogspot.com/2008/12/use-three-letters-to-transform-your.html#links
"...For nearly eight months, I pleaded with the health and engineering officers of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to clean the drains. Basvanagudi Nagarika Samithi, the local resident welfare association (RWA), joined the fight and wrote to the BBMP authorities seeking a speedy intervention. I, along with my brother Uday, even met the Joint Commissioner, South Zone, at BBMP.
All these efforts yielded no results. That left us with no option but the RTI Act..........
.....My RTI application put BBMP engineers in the dock. Carrying out the work asked for was the only option left for them. Else, they would be exposed for their shoddy maintenance of roads.
Soon, the RTI magic began to work. Engineers and their retinue came rushing the very next working day and started removing the debris to unblock all shoulder-drains.
If not for our RTI application, our request would have been ignored and many in our neighbourhood would have been nursing broken limbs...."
- Lodge FIR against DGP - Courtesy Hindustan Times
"...Roy, then commissioner of Mumbai police, had ordered the detention of Awasthi on December 29, 2005. Awasthi was arrested on January 3, 2006. However, after Awasthi moved the Bombay High Court, the detention order was quashed.
Awasthi then applied under the Right to Information Act with the Mumbai police. “I found that some of the documents, on the basis of which the MPRD orders were issued, never existed and subsequently I filed a complaint in the sessions court on December 2007.”
Awasthi’s lawyer, Anjali Iyer, said the sessions court directed the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court to take necessary action.
Roy and other officers will be charged under sections 166 (Public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person), 196 (Using evidence known to be false), 466 (Forgery of record of court or of public register), 469 (Forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), and section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) among others. ..."
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Indeed a good tool, the onus is with us.
When one is desperate, like those people referred in the two stories RTI is very essential and it is there. However knowing our judicial system people who are desperate with no other alternative but to go in for prolonged litigation only can take recourse to this excellent tool.
This brings us to the fact that RTI as a tool should be used to prevent large damage from happening by taking early/proactive action like what praja is contemplating.
If media also can put RTI to proactive use, if not doing so already, will it not be wonderful?