With the support of the Mountain Children’s Foundation, I took part in a workshop on the Right to Information Act that was organised by the Horrawala Bal Panchayat. In this workshop, we learned a great deal of important information about the RTI. We learned what types of information we could request from the government and how we should write our RTI requests, and that each government department was required to have an information officer, to whom we could address our inquiries, and what that officer’s responsibilities were.
This workshop generated greater awareness about government works that were being carried out in our area and inspired us to use the RTI to address our community’s needs.
A few months ago, several huge cement pipes were delivered to my village. They were to be used to divert water from a canal along the road and move it underground. These cement pipes were placed haphazardly on both sides of the main road. This was causing a great deal of trouble for anyone using the road and greatly increased the risk of accidents and injuries. I filed an RTI request about this problem at the irrigation department and asked when these pipes would be removed from the road. Within a few days of my request, the pipes were removed from the road. I am very pleased with my success and when I told my family about this, my mother and father didn’t believe me! They only believed me when a Junior Engineer from the irrigation department came looking for me at my house. He told my mother, "Your son wrote to my department asking about the pipes and it was only because of him that they were removed. I hope that now no one will be inconvenienced because of the pipes." A few days later, I also received an official response to my original RTI request. For me, this is a completely new experience. I used to think that government work could only be influenced by big people. If we ever had a problem with the government we could only get it addressed by going through a politician or government official. But this experience has shown me that with a little attentiveness and awareness, and the proper use of the government’s RTI law, we can solve many of our own problems.
This workshop generated greater awareness about government works that were being carried out in our area and inspired us to use the RTI to address our community’s needs.
A few months ago, several huge cement pipes were delivered to my village. They were to be used to divert water from a canal along the road and move it underground. These cement pipes were placed haphazardly on both sides of the main road. This was causing a great deal of trouble for anyone using the road and greatly increased the risk of accidents and injuries. I filed an RTI request about this problem at the irrigation department and asked when these pipes would be removed from the road. Within a few days of my request, the pipes were removed from the road. I am very pleased with my success and when I told my family about this, my mother and father didn’t believe me! They only believed me when a Junior Engineer from the irrigation department came looking for me at my house. He told my mother, "Your son wrote to my department asking about the pipes and it was only because of him that they were removed. I hope that now no one will be inconvenienced because of the pipes." A few days later, I also received an official response to my original RTI request. For me, this is a completely new experience. I used to think that government work could only be influenced by big people. If we ever had a problem with the government we could only get it addressed by going through a politician or government official. But this experience has shown me that with a little attentiveness and awareness, and the proper use of the government’s RTI law, we can solve many of our own problems.
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