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Have you endlessly visited Government offices to get your pension or driver’s license or marriage certificate, or wondered what happened to your land registration papers? More often than not, people end up having to grease the pockets of corrupt officials to get anything done in these offices. Can we ever hope to do away with paying bribes to get anything done? YES, by invoking the RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT! When Kannaiyalal, a resident of Beawar, Rajasthan was tired of the endless pursuit of the paper trail for his land registration, he resorted to RTI. He invoked the act with just two simple questions: a) why has he not received the registration papers and b) who was responsible for the delay. This single RTI application got the officials to measure the size of the plot of land and initiate the process of registration. (Source: www.thesouthasian.org) Parivartan, an active NGO in Delhi campaigning for RTI, used file notings to unravel a scam behind the award of a contract to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) by the Delhi Jal Board. It was unearthed that PWC was initially at the 10th position among the bidding companies and the World Bank had pressured the Delhi government to bring up PWC by rebidding and changing the selection criteria. 
Photo: Dharna spearheaded by Parivartan, Asha Parivar, NCPRI and others Jantar Mantar, Delhi (Aug 7th – 19th 2006)
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Invoking the right to information empowers the common man by providing him with tangible and irrefutable evidence against the individuals, the possible reasons and motivations behind these delays, thus enabling greater transparency and timeliness. ---
Brunda Kattekola, AID-Princeton |
