Times
of India: Bhopal: Friday, 05 December 2014.
Nine years
since its inception, state information commission of Madhya Pradesh has not
received a single RTI application by a school student of the state. As per RTI
Act, 2005, any person below 18 years is equally eligible to file an RTI
application. However, children of state are totally oblivious to the right to
know and the procedures involved in filing an RTI, say activists.
Former chief
information commissioner (CIC) PP Tiwari and present CIC K D Khan wrote to
state government to incorporate RTI Act, 2005, in MP Board School syllabus in
2011 and 2014, but the state government is yet to act. Activist Ajay Dubey said
it has been more than three years since the written request from CIC to include
RTI in syllabus is pending with the board of secondary education.
School
students are unaware of RTI Act, but are taught about their right to vote which
they cannot exercise unless they turn 21. In nine years, the state government
has not spent a single penny on RTI awareness.
"Looks
like educationists and politicians are not interested in educating children
about their right to information," he said.
"Even a
six-year old kid can file an RTI. But lack of awareness among students in state
has kept them unaware about their right. Other states have still seen school
students filing RTI applications," said Parag Karkare, undersecretary,
state information commission."
The only
silver lining is that commission has received many RTI applications from
college students, who are filing applications to get their answer-sheets from
universities, get information on eligibility of their professors and learn the
legitimate fees of their college and more.
Arjun Joshi,
22, could not believe he had performed so poorly in his graduation. He applied
for re-totaling of his marks, but the result remained the same. Arjun applied
for re-evaluation hoping for a change, but he was left disappointed. After
filing an RTI for original marksheet, it was learnt that two pages of his
copies were unchecked resulting in loss of more than 14 marks. Thus RTI
vindicated his stand and his confidence was restored.
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