Times
of India: New Delhi: Friday, 17 October 2014.
Himadrish
Suwan took the Ranchi Rajdhani from Delhi to Ranchi every summer and noticed it
was the only Rajdhani still using the old ICF coaches. "They were
horrible. The washrooms etc. were in bad condition. The Ranchi-New Delhi was
the only one that didn't have the new LHB (Linke Holfmann Busch) coaches which
are also safer as they don't flip on collision," said Suwan.
At 15 and
still in school, he filed an RTI query asking the Indian Railways who will be
responsible in case of an accident and what they mean to do with the coaches.
"I filed the RTI in April 2012. They replied they are planning to change
the coaches and on the Bokaro route, they have," he said.
About a 100
RTIs later, Suwan, now 17 and a political science student at Shahid Bhagat
Singh College, has been conferred the Young Achiever's Award an international
one by The International Association of Educators for World Peace on recommendation
of Confederation of Indian Universities.
He stays near
Saket and the traffic condition prompted him to file an RTI with the Delhi
Police. "Two policemen were deployed and barricades were put up," he
said. Then last year, he filed one for the Prime Minister's office asking how
many speeches the former PM had made since 2004. "I got a funny reply.
They said 1,300 times and sent me the full list of dates and times. They even
included single-line replies to media queries in the list of speeches," recalled
Suwan.
He also
inquired from the Central Board of Secondary Education about the availability
of infrastructure especially computers for the implementation of continuous
comprehensive evaluation. "You need computers for all these projects which
is okay for urban locations but what about rural areas?" he asked. Suwan
graduated from Amity International School, Saket.
Once he
graduates from Delhi University, Suwan plans to study law. "I want to be a
judge," he said.
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