Demystifying RTI: empowering change for yourself

RTI Simplified: What, How, Why, Does it work?

 

Each Indian has many Rights, but we may not be aware or demand it because of many reasons, however the objective of today’s blog is to share how you can utilize one of the most powerful tool – RTI (Right to Information). The RTI Act was passed too late in India but hats off to thousands of activists who have demanded for it and ensured the common man has the Right To Information.

Now as an Indian, you may not have a choice to complain anymore as you have the power to bring a change. Still the choice is yours to do or not :-)

"If information and knowledge are central to democracy, they are conditions for development." - Kofi Annan

What is RTI Act?

An Act to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

For what situations one can apply RTI?

• From Infrastructure point of view, you can raise an RTI, seeking information on Tender process, selection process, terms and conditions, contract awarded to, penalty applied or if you have lodged complain on potholes – what was the action taken?  http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portal/anonymous?NavigationTarget=navurl://3b69836384abb93ed318375c90d11335
• Let’s say you had applied for a Gas Connection with HP and they have not given you a connection, you may raise RTI – seeking information on how many connections have been issued in your locality post your application or in that tenure. You may also seek information, why your application was delayed?   http://www.hindustanpetroleum.com/En/UI/RTIAct.aspx
• You believe doctor is your locality is using someone else certificate or not qualified and still practicing. You may write to medical council of India or respective state medical council. http://www.mciindia.org/ActsandAmendments/RighttoInformation.aspx
  

 How to apply for RTI?

• Step 1: Know your problem and what information you desire to seek from any public sector or government organization [I wanted to check whether a particular doctor practicing in a particular locality was genuine or fake]
• Step 2: Ensure you have address where you would like to send the RTI application. [Login to Internet and you check the website of that organization. There shall be link called RTI Act or Contact us] Or you may visit the office and meet the concerned official and seek inputs on the process and details of DD/Postal Order to be issued [Visited Medical council of India and Gujarat Medical Council website - Courtesy google search, called up their helpline on contact us and asked for required information]
• Step 3: Visit a Bank to get a DD to be issued in the name of ‘Account Officer, or you may call the respective organization on the listed number and you can confirm with them the name.  The DD shall be of Rs. 10 (INR Ten). [Don’t worry if it is wrong, because if it is wrong, they shall revert to you with the details. Or visit post office and issue a Postal order in favor of ‘Account officer, of Rs. 10. [Postal Order shall be cheaper option compared to DD as processing fees is less] [Please refer Image below]          

• Step 4: Take a blank paper and write a letter in your preferred language [To Account officer, Address, questions seeking information, your address, contact number, email id]. [Please refer Image below]    

Some content has been masked to ensure privacy of individual.

• Step 5: Put the letter in an envelope and send it using either using a registered post or a courier for your reference.

Your job is done and you shall get a response in 30 days.

Response received from the MCI is as illustrated below. 

Note: If you have requested information and if the cost of preparing document or CD is there, then the organization shall provide you the required information and send you an intimation stating the additional amount to be paid. Ensure you pay it, I don’t know what happens if you don’t pay :-)

If you do not get a response, you can lodge complain with the senior or else with Chief Information Commissioner, however there shall not be a need for the same. All the information is available on respective website or else visit http://rti.gov.in/ .

Any plan for applying another one?

Yes, to check whether caste based reservation helps in higher education or not? If not, then take appropriate action as deemed fit. May seek your help, if you believe, please mail me !!!!

I thought it would be useful to share our fundamental rights, which may have been forgotten!!!

• Right to equality, including equality before law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and equality of opportunity in matters of employment, abolition of untouchability and abolition of titles.
• Right to freedom which includes speech and expression, assembly, association or union or cooperatives, movement, residence, and right to practice any profession or occupation (some of these rights are subject to security of the State, friendly relations with foreign countries, public order, decency or morality), right to life and liberty, right to education, protection in respect to conviction in offences and protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.
• Right against exploitation, prohibiting all forms of forced labour, child labour and traffic in human beings;
• Right to freedom of religion, including freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion, freedom to manage religious affairs, freedom from certain taxes and freedom from religious instructions in certain educational institutes.
• Cultural and Educational rights preserving Right of any section of citizens to conserve their culture, language or script, and right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
• Right to constitutional remedies for enforcement of Fundamental Rights.

Guys, you all have a choice to do something or live the life the way it is. Time is running out, its just going to April or May 2014 when our 16 General Elections will be. You have a choice to do something today or complain for next 5 years.Have a beautiful week ahead.

Source: http://rti.gov.in/ & www.Wikipedia.org & http://www.brainyquote.com

Chicken or Egg, Us or Them?

Scientists have claimed to solve the problem of Chicken or egg, however it’s difficult to decide who will change first, Us or the elected/selected ministers? Actually our relation with the politicians is like a couple who are high on expectation and low on action. However, in this beautiful relation politicians don’t want us to change, whereas we want them to change. How would this unfair situation change? It’s like a drunkard saying to others ‘Drinking is injurious to health’.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy

We must realize that the current state of affair is because of us and not because of the politicians or government officials. We want convenience, faster service without following process, rules, regulations for ourselves. All this can’t come cheap, we got to pay and that’s called ‘Chai Pani’ – Bribe. So what, all are doing it, why shouldn’t I? Let me ask you, there are many people who rape, kill, have drugs, go to prostitute, steal and many other things, but do you do that? Do you teach your kid or family to do it? The answer is clearly No. Actually, we are selective in the way we do things and if it’s wrong, then we say its fine, had no choice? I happened to see the Mahabharat serial and in that Krishna says ‘Most parents put their energy on building a future for the kids but miss out on character building’. Your child would be what you are; your kid would learn and observe what you say, what you do and how you do.

We have no rights to celebrate the various Supreme Court judgments because we have not done anything to make it happen. Also, remember there are thousands of changes and reforms required to make this country a better place to live in and for that your contribution is essential.

To do anything, we need to have clarity on few basic things such as knowing yourself, Knowing how much one can do and knowing what one would like to do.

Knowing Yourself: You may categorize yourself in one of the three types of people as described below:
Category 1: Strong moral and ethical values driven by principle. Believe in doing things right most of the time and have answer to what, why, how and when? Able to answer to questions in Yes or No with a logical reason acceptable/understandable by others. Principles are universal and they remain true irrespective of place, people and situation.

Category 2: Have moral and ethical values but not driven by principles. They know what is wrong but at times do not understand what is right and can convert wrong to right based on situation for self satisfaction. They do wrong but have justification why that wrong thing is right. They can easily justify their mistakes and put the blame on others. Happy to raise voice in safe, secured location but not in public because they fear of losing something or someone or an imaginative power of someone that makes them weak.

Category 3: Have no moral or ethical values and have no principles or rules to follow. Clear in the way they want to get the work done or live life. They know the tricks of living life and they devise tricks to tackle a situation. However, survival is dependent on network and connections and use of tools such as divide, threaten, position power, influence and so on.

“There is much in the world to make us afraid. There is much more in our faith to make us unafraid.” -Frederick W. Cropp

Knowing how much one can do: You may play any of the following roles:
• Supporter – believe in something but not sure what to do, however can support others
• Activist – believe in something and do not wait for others to come and join you
• Informed Citizen – know the rights and the way things are to be done
• Talker – knows things are wrong, knows something needs to be done, will not do and will not support, but in group will talk the most
• Facilitator – Will not act, will not support, will not stop others but will facilitate and encourage privately or do actions which are harmless to others but beneficial to few
• Distracter – Will not allow consensus and shall give opinion in some other direction

Knowing what one would like to do: you may take up any or all of the following:
• Knowledge (few examples)
- Know your citizen charter
- Know your rights as human and citizen of India
- Know the contacts of Police station, Fire Brigade, Hospitals nearby, Media personnel, Medical Store, Railway police force, Human Right activists and others as deemed necessary
- Know your local MP, MLA, Opposition’s background and profile
- Know how RTI can be filed
- Know whom to reach and where to complain

• Action (some things which you can easily do but not limited to what is listed)
- Join an NGO or Rotary club – contribute to society
- Take a lead in your family and society [building] and unite them and demand collectively
- Form a group of like-minded people [4 to 5 should be good] for a particular cause [Engineering friends or school friends coming together to form a report on reforms needed – submit it to media, Directorate of technical education. Or Retired doctors can come together to write a report on reforms in healthcare and submit it medical councils and healthcare department and media].
- File a PIL (Public Interest Litigation)
- Write to editor of newspaper or online media
- Those who are outside India can adopt a kid or family or village based on your capacity. Please note, it’s not about giving money – it’s about taking ownership
• Vote (online campaigns, state, central, local elections)
• Voice your concern sitting at home (below are examples, not limited to the list):
- To your local municipality, district collector, MP, MLA or activist
- chiefminister@maharashtra.gov.in
- http://pmindia.nic.in/contact.php
- http://www.narendramodi.in/write-to-shri-narendra-modi/
- http://www.bjp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=403&Itemid=590
- http://aicc.org.in/
- http://iyc.in/sns/pg/pages/view/402017/
- http://www.ncp.org.in/contact.php
- https://www.facebook.com/IndianNationalCongress

You lose nothing, if you raise your voice, but if you don’t, then you have much more to lose.

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”― Albert Einstein

Images: Courtesy Google :-)

United They Are, Divided & Fallen Are We

“United we stand, Divided we fall” is been strongly followed by selected few and rest are wondering how do we get united with so many reasons to fight. The one who follow are the ones in parliament and legislative assemblies following it rigorously, as and when they desire. Let’s take two cases to demonstrate their unity; RTI for political parties and the other is disqualification of convicted MP/MLA’s. All of them sitting in parliament have agreed to reject the idea unanimously and are figuring out a way to pass it as a bill shortly. On the other side, look at rest of the Indians, how united are we on issues like corruption, ensuring that only educated, clean politicians are elected and on our day to day problem, healthcare, security? How many of us have continued our fight against for better law and security. There are so many Activists, NGO’s and few celebrities working in the best interest of Indians. However, when it comes to raising a common voice, we all have difference of opinion.

It’s not wrong only with the current generation but it has been a problem for generations and to corroborate it nothing can be better than our history. Look back in history from Mughal Era to British regime – Few thousands have ruled us for hundreds of years and we had not single leader or king who could unite the then or current Indians. Our weakness was the strength for the outsiders. Moreover, we are divided by religion, states, villages, status, language, gender, age, and not sure how many more categorization we shall be creating. Those who are not divided on above terms are allured with worldly gains, so that the devil in us overpowers the good. Lastly, fear is the mother of all strategies; it works irrespective of gender, state, religion & it’s universal. Yes, we fear for even sharing our thoughts or raise our voice because we fear what the other person would do or what government would do?

None of the parties think for the people and it’s all about safe guarding their own interest. They talk of reducing CAD but end up designing ways of giving freebies in some form or the other to win the votes. They talk about bringing dollar in control but end up giving laptops and tablets which need to be imported. I don’t think so we should be complaining about the politicians or government officials. We ourselves are wrong because we have been so engrossed in our life. We are in the so called rat race not realizing that we are contributing towards creation of a hell. I wonder would it have been good, if the British had ruled us for few more years, would they have made this country better?

Mumbai Auto union’s can take the city to ransom and ensure they bring it to a standstill – that’s their power, because they are united. Whereas look at all of us, we do not support the activists who fight for us, we do not believe in car pooling or helping others or using public transport for a day because convenience is important over supporting a cause.

If you watch the news channel on any debate, people have their own view point and they want to superimpose it on others. Most of the Indians follow a simple rule ‘volume of your voice should be inversely proportionate to your listening ability’. However, we are so lazy or are in a comfort zone that we have closed our eyes, but remember not all of us can pack our bags and stay abroad for lifetime. Let’s be real, whether rich or poor, you got to wipe your own ***. You are lucky that you were not the one in the Delhi bus or it was not your kid who gets molested in bus or raped. Can you guarantee your family that you will protect your kid, give best medical care for your old parents, ensure wife is secured when she goes out and assure them you will return home safely. If you make a blind eye to others, you will get in return the same - As you sow, so shall you reap.

They are public servants elected by us with our power to vote but look at the irony of life, we fear them once we elect them and they feel more powerful. Can anything be done about the non united problem? The answer was and is always yes. First we have to awaken ourselves and kick ourselves to act and move out of comfort zone. The problem is not outside, unfortunately or fortunately, it is within ourselves and the beauty is that no one except yourself can change you. Its matter of a second that you decide that you will do your bit and walk together with all others as Indian and no further difference. This change itself shall make a lot of difference. Second action would be to bring in unity starting with family, friends, colleagues and then the society where you stay. Start talking and sharing to bring in consensus. Hundreds of ways are there on what can be done to bring a significant change and making our country a better place.

The idea is never to do Egyptian like protest or unrest or get on to street and shout slogans or speak badly about politicians or be non-violent; we can still do small things and get united. The rule of our unity should be not to find one leader but to have one common voice. More the numbers we have and longer we stay together, stronger we shall emerge. Sparing an hour of a week shall be more than helpful.

Imagine, you are able to bring just 5 friends/family members or colleagues who believe in your belief to bring a change and then they bring in 5 more and that’s the we increase our numbers. Once we have grown enough we will start focusing for better India and not on yours or my problems. Nothing shall be lost, if we make this small effort today. It is time to start the Modern Satyagraha, technology is the key. Would you like to do your bit - one more time?



Images - courtesy Google Search :-)