RTI arms mother to fight Indian Army.

Deccan Chronical : Pramila Krishnan : Chennai : Saturday, March 30, 2013

An aged mother in Chennai is waging an unending battle against the Indian Army. The only weapon in her frail hands now is a directive from the Central Inform­ation Commission (CIC) to the Indian Army to bring before the grieving mom all the documentary evidence of her son’s work as clerk at the military hospital in Roorkee and the basis for the Army declaring him a ‘deserter’ in 1991. 

The most intriguing aspect in this sad story is that the Army did nothing to either trace the young man, suddenly gone missing, or help his mother with proper answers to the many letters of anguish. “My husband passed away in 2001 following severe mental depression after several attempts made to trace our son Sankara Subram­anian failed. The RTI Act has empowered me to question the negligent Army officials who simply washed their hands off without informing us about his whereabouts. I am hope­ful my son would have left some note for me,” the 68-year-old mother R. Anus­uya told DC. She said the officials did not answer many RTI questions and she appealed to the CIC to get answers.

Now the CIC has ordered the authorities to produce the belongings of Sankara Subramanaian and give answers to all the queries raised by Anusuya. “I came to know about the RTI Act through Ms Booma, an RTI activist in Ambattur. For all these years, I had been sending petitions and filing complaints.However, I beca­me enlightened after learning that I could question and ask for my rights through the RTI,” she said. 

With the advise from Booma, Anusuya traveled from Chennai to Delhi and attended the CIC proceedings all alone. Booma said aggrieved citizens should use the RTI Act to win justice. “All the government offices have RTI officer and any aggrieved person can use the Act to get details,” she said. Booma can be contacted on her mobile phone no: 99406 58767.