Stand up to RTI

Make your local MLA/MP/Councillor responsible and accountable for everything. Don't get water? Roads potholed? Drains overflowing? It takes virtually nothing to ask for information from an information officer. And they're bound by law to provide information. Find out what the government is spending, what the local Corporation or Municipality is spending on, who they're giving the contracts to. All financial details are up for scrutiny.

Not many of us are aware of the existence of a powerful Act enacted by the Centre and a few States pertaining to the right to information called the Right to Information Act or simply called the RTI.

The enactment of this Act is the fallout of many years of hard and persistent pressure applied on the “authorities that be” by a handful of people and a few non-government organizations. Some states had this Act in place (Tamil Nadu in 1996, Goa (1997), Rajasthan (2000), Maharashtra (2000), Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Madhya Pradesh (2003), Assam (2004) and Jammu and Kashmir (2004)), but not at the national level.

This Act strives to bring about transparency . The National Act was passed in October 2005 and Shahid Burney of Pune filed perhaps the first application under the National Act in Pune.

The Central government issued its rules for applications and fees under the new regime. Under these rules, citizens will have to pay Rs 10 as application fee, Rs 2 per page of A4/A3 size paper on which copies of information are received, and Rs 50 per floppy diskette. Inspection of records for the first hour is free, but citizens will have to pay Rs.5 for every 15 minutes of subsequent time.No fee will be charged for people living below the poverty line. The Central rules notification has also been followed by several State governments with their own rules on fees and costs, with many states making fee schedules similar to the Centre’s.
A combination of intimidation and mindless application of the letter of the law threatens to dissuade citizens from putting the RTI Act to use. And politicians are only happy to offer solutions that further dilute the law's purpose.There are incidences where huge bills have been handed over to poor people asking for information thus dissuading the effective use of this Act.

One or more officers in every public authority designated as Public Information Officers(PIO)are the nodal officers, who are supposed to accept any application under RTI,collectinformation from that Department and provide it to the applicant.If the desired information is not provided within 30 days of application or if the information provided is incomplete,the concerned officer becomes liable for a penalty of Rs 250 per day of default up to a maximum of Rs 25,000 per application. And if wrong information is provided, a penalty up to a maximum of Rs 25,000 can be imposed on the officer.An RTI application is to be submitted along with application fee.Fees may be paid by cash, DD or banker’s cheque.Fees will not be charged for BPL applicants.The PIO is bound to respond with the requested information within 30 days. It is not necessary to state the purpose of application or what is intended to be done with the information.The PIO may request the applicant to deposit an additional fee. The PIO should provide detailed calculations on how this additional fee was calculated.The period taken to deposit the amount(from the date of notification of extra fee)will not be counted for the 30-day time-period.The PIO should provide the reasons for rejection of application.The applicant may file an appeal against this decision within 30 days of the rejection.An appeal against the appellate authority’s decision can be filed with the State/Central Information Commission.The Union and State Governments have constituted CIC and SIC respectively.
Exception- The PIO should provide information that concerns the life or liberty of a person within 48 hours. The PIO may take upto 40 days to provide information if a third party had provided this information to the public authority under the presumption of confidentiality.

Tips-Questions should be precise and crisp and not vague. Obtain acknowledgement of all correspondence with the PIO. Maintain copies of all correspondences with the PIO including DD, acknowledgment etc.

After information regarding public works or whatever information is sought is procured, and verification of these done meticulouly to give the exact amount of defalcation, can be made public and submitted to various agencies including vigilance OR the findings can be presented before a gathering of the local people. This is JANSUNWAI. Parivartan of Delhi is one organization which conducts these jansunwais regularly.

There is a great sense of achievement once we use the RTI, it is after all our right to know things. It is not necessary that you need be in a particular place to use the RTI. A person sitting in Tirunelveli can ask about the cost incurred in laying of a particular road in Guwahati.

And in case you're thinking, where's the time for this? There are lots of people who are willing to help. There's a website called Mahadhikar( for Maharashtra), PAC (for Karnataka) Parivartan (Delhi) etc. ... I know more than a fair share of activists who will guide you every step of the way.

So... it's the first baby step towards getting the city/state/ country you want. Find out where the money is going. There are lots and lots of dedicated people who have put their heart and soul into RTI and into making officers, MLAs, MPs and everyone more accountable.

And if we keep using this, it will make the authorities stay on their feet and be more accountable. Transparency should be the mantra. Though we cant stop a terrorist attack, dont we have the right to live life a little off the edge?