RTI activist nudges government to correct mistakes in Hindi version of RTI Act

Newstrack India: New Delhi: Friday, November 09, 2012.

The Hindi Version of Right To Information (RTI) act, 2005 finally rectified and corrected version was uploaded on the Central Government's RTI portal on November 02 after the marathon efforts of an RTI activist Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra, who forced the government to make it error free.

Batra had pointed out 34 mistakes in Hindi version of RTI Act, 2005. Since it's uploading in Hindi version of RTI Act, there were several mistakes that can cause harms to RTI activists and states can take benefits from this version.

To prevent the misuse of this version, RTI activist Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra, did hard work and fought four years to make it correct from the government. He sent mail and emails to Prime Minister, Prime Minister?s Office (PMO), DoPT and Law Ministry to get the result.

It took Commodore Batra 15 months to move the government to find out the 34 mistakes.

"I sent emails-letters to the Central Information Commission and the Prime Minister," he said.

I filed many RTIs and in between, went to CIC hearings and orders," he said, adding that it took another 40 months for the Centre to put up the corrected version.

In his mail to Prime Minister on 10 April 2008 Batra had proposed, "This is a serious mistake and needs immediate correction. Hindi speaking States can make full use of this mistake to their advantage. Sir, I request someone in Government should immediately go through the translated Hindi version of the RTI Act 2005 to ensure that there are no more mistakes.

"In the meantime Government needs to issue notification to correct this mistake. I have since written about it to CIC also on 03 April 2008. Sir, I am also placing this mail in Public Domain including media," he wrote.