RTI - one of the landmark
achievment of UPA.
Firstly thanks to them,because
after a series of failure in governance
the only good naah only best
thing they did was RTI.
As the name says it gives you
right to ask any government organisation any information that you may like to
know.
RTI is like a dhanush(bow and
arrow) in your hand. And government is your shikar (target). But dont forget,if
you
dont know dhanurvidya(archery)
then your arrow is useless
Now here is the first twist-
Remember RTI is not Kuch Bhi Puchoo (ask whatever). Famous RTI activist Krishna
Raj
explain it simply as RTI is
'Suchana ka Adhikar' not pucchne ka adhikar.I know many of you would get
perplexed
with the last sentence but guys
this is what RTI is. Remember you can never ask a question in your RTI
application.
If u do so your RTI application
will directly fly to dustbin. You can ask them only to give what they define as
information. Yeah.... only information... i.e duplicate copy of any print or
elctronic documents, order copies and files.
Suppose if you ask " why did
you pay so much for repairing roads?" , then dont waste time waiting for
answer. RTI doesn't
entertain 'Why' 'How' questions.
Instead it gives only information like when it started and when it's gonna
completed, what has been spent on it, bills and receipts regarding it etc etc.
Now second important point- Buy
Postal order of Rs.10. If you buy less than that, sometimes few officers may
write
you back asking for correct
application,else dont worry your application will land into dustbin.
(Note they may ask you for extra
money for xerox and other postal charges depending on asked information.
Its advised to ask reciepts for
everything)
Thirdly BE CAREFULLY, On postal
order you will be paying money in favour of ACCOUNTS OFFICER, and not Public
Information
Officer, whom actually you are
gonna ask question. Your application should be addressed to information
officer, but postal
order should be in favour of
accounts officer
Fourthly, be within prescribed
word limits. For Central govt it is around 500 words, and it varies for different
state
governments. Please check this
information with the office where you are gonna send it.
It may take 30 days for the
concerned office to reply depending on their schedule. If you dont get reply/
dissatisfied
with what you got, then you may
appeal for it.
In my next post I'll be posting
some sample RTI questions. From those you'll learn how to squeeze officers for
answers. Everything exists in how you ask.........
Im sorry if there are some typing
mistakes.....I'll correct them soon
