The
Hans India: Hayderabad: Wednesday, 28 January 2015.
Barely 10
years old, some students of Vadi government primary school in Velpur mandal of
Nizamabad district have set a record of sorts by making the best use of Right
to Information Act as an effective tool to find solutions to the problems
plaguing the village as well as their school. The students filed RTI applications on four occasions and were
successful in getting what they wanted.
Class V
student B Manoj (9) was one among the 15 students of this school who did not
get annual scholarship of Rs 1000 (for 2011-12) given by the Labour Department
to children of Beedi workers. While parents and students were disheartened,
this little crusader heard about the Right to Information Act (RTI) and sought
elders help to question the government on the injustice meted out to the
children like him.
Manoj filed
an application under the RTI with the Labour Department, seeking reasons for
not releasing scholarship and asking how much them they would take to disburse
the money. Moved by the kid’s action, the Labour Department officials
immediately responded and redressed his grievance. Not only that, they even
promptly dashed off a letter to the student, informing him of their response.
Having tasted
the power of the RTI, Manoj again made use of the Act to seek information, this
time, from the Archaeology Department for information on the forgotten history
of Nizamabad district. He was soon provided with the details he had sought.
Taking cue
from their friend, a student Kavitha also used the RTI Act to ensure public
transportation to her village. She gave a representation to RTC authorities
requesting them for a bus service from Armoor to Vadi to ferry school students.
As there was no reply, she filed an application under the RTI. The state-owned
transport corporation, which initially stated that the route concerned was not
profitable, later swung into action and held discussions with gram sabha.
It finally
decided to allot a special bus service. This move helped dozens of students
from neighbouring villages to come to the school. Ten-year-old Mamata from the
same school got several doubts about the tiger population in the state when a
lesson on this subject was being taught. She posed some questions but the
teachers could not give her satisfactory reply. Following this, she filed an
application under RTI with the Forest Department and 25 days later, the girl
was provided with tiger population.
When The Hans
India spoke to Nizamabad DEO Srinivasa Chary and Velpur MEO M Srinivas about
this, they said the school authorities were laying emphasis on the RTI Act.
According to school authorities, a teacher by name Naresh has been the guiding
force behind all the four students. He has thorough understanding of the Act as
he is also an RTI activist earlier, they said.
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