Moneylife: Pune: Tuesday, December 19, 2017.
More and more
citizens should use Right to Information (RTI) Act for obtaining information
for their own as well as society’s benefit, was the unique messages from RTI
activists of Pune and with the facility of online filing of RTI it has become
easier to do so,’’ stated noted RTI activist, Vijay Kumbhar. He was speaking at
Moneylife Foundation’s RTI Centre organized, “How to use RTI in day-to-day
life” workshop, the experts, Vijay Kumbhar, Vijay Kumbhar, founder Surajya
Sanghrsh Samiti, Qaneez Sukhrani, Managing Committee Member of Nagrik Chetna
Manch, Tanmay Kanitkar, President of Parivartan, an NGO which uses RTI
extensively and Vinita Deshmukh, Consulting Editor of Moneylife.
Narrating his
experience of his first RTI application, nine years back, on how it took him
one whole year to procure information on an educational related issue, Mr
Kanitkar stated, “You should have patience and perseverance to get the
information you have requested. Mostly, the public authorities are inclined to
provide you the information but you must be focused in your attempt and shed
off negativity. Often, there is disconnect between our political leaders/
government officers and citizens as the latter is unaware of the actuality of
work being done by the former. Hence, every citizen must be aware of the duties
discharged by those who we make trustees of our money.’’
Ms Sukhrani
urged the audience to pursue the information doggedly and not give up if at the
first instance, he or she is denied information at the Public Information
Officer (PIO) level. “PIOs do provide information; in fact most of them respond
to RTI requests. However, one should use RTI to resolve their issues and not
waste time.”
She narrated
how armed with the information procured through RTI queries, she has taken
dragged government authorities to the Bombay High Court and won cases. One of
them related to illegal hoardings put up by politicians. “I also filed RTI
applications with several authorities because of which I have been successful
in obtaining Deemed Registration and Deemed Conveyance single-handedly for my
Society as we had a non-co-operative builder / promoter who refused to hand
over documents, plans or register the Society,” Ms Sukhrani added.
Mr Kumbhar
urged the participants to, use Section 4 extensively and forget about going
through the rigmarole of writing a RTI application under Section 6 with a Rs10
court fee stamp and waiting for 30 days or more to get information. The Pune
Municipal Corporation has an open day between 3pm and 5pm every Monday, for
file inspection under Section 4. Every citizen can walk into any department of
the PMC and demand inspection of files. However, despite this facility in the
country, very few citizens go for inspection, Mr Kumbhar added.
He urged
citizens to show up on Mondays at the PMC. He also mentioned that building
plans of each and every construction in the last three years have already been
uploaded on the PMC and work is going on to put up the plans of the earlier
years.
During the
interaction session, participants spoke about their experience with RTI in the
banking sector, public toilets and so on. The panel of experts replied to the
doubts and queries of participants. Sucheta Dalal, Founder Trustee of Moneylife
Foundation urged participants to join in the Moneylife campaign, which is
fighting against loot by banks through levying of various kinds of fees as
service charges from individuals, which is illegal. It is Reserve Bank of India
(RBI)’s responsibility to act against it but isn’t doing so.
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