Your right to be in the know

‘Society needs to be responsible’
RTI activist Syed Shah Ali Hussaini believes that as a common man we can and should be able to question the government. He has filed 60 RTIs since 2012. “Back then, the UPA government hosted a lot of dinners. The first RTI I filed was asking the cost and purpose of such dinners. It was more symbolic for me… when someone as powerless as me can file an RTI and seek details from the government.”

“My other RTIs have had a purpose. When there was a blast in Dilsukhnagar in 2013, I had asked how much compensation was being declared and if the victims got it... what were the directives issued after the blast. I got a reply to most of my RTIs since I kept following up with the Public Information Officer.”

Ali believes that the society doesn't need a lot of activists, but people who can raise questions. “If everyone starts taking the responsibility of checking and getting their problems fixed, it will result in a better city.”

In case your RTI request doesn’t get a reply in 30 days, Ali says you can file a “first appeal” and a “second appeal” later. “But the second appeal doesn’t have a timeline and your hearing could take months. That is a loophole which could be used by the officials,” he says.

‘Need competent officers’
Part-time businessman, part-time RTI enthusiast C.J. Karira’s “passion” for the Act began in 2007 when had to fight the commercial taxes department for money he was owed. “I had a huge refund due, and they were refusing to clear it until I paid a bribe. In spite of winning many appeals they weren’t paying me,” he said. After filing an RTI, he found that none of the paperwork he was being asked to submit were actually required, and on submitting his findings to the authorities, he got (most of) his money back.

Karira has since filed over 800 RTI applications, taking mainly to consumer and public cause related issues.

C.J. Karira helps people file RTIs, for free
“It’s a way to tell the government that there are some decisions they’ve taken that are not proper and here’s a way to prove that this is wrong,” Karira says, adding that his own friends and family who first laughed at his fervour now all come to him for advice — advice and help he gives for free to the public. After placing a small ad in the Deccan Chronicle that simply said, “Any problem with the government, sort it out in Rs 10,” Karira started receiving requests for help from the general public.

According to him, one of the changes he’d like to see happen from the government’s attitude towards the RTI is to appoint “competent” Information Commissioners: “In all the papers, one word is missing — competent. They say he’s a good man, a loyalist of the party, has wide experience, no black mark on his service record; no one says if he’s competent or not.”

‘RTI is only the first step, not the solution’
Working for the public good, Padmanabhan Reddy has for the past six years, through his Forum For Good Governance (FFGD), used the power of the RTI to create social change.

One of the first applications Padmanabhan worked on was one that listed out criminal cases linked with MLAs in the former united Andhra Pradesh. “The whole idea was to prevent the criminalisation of politics, as far as possible,” he explains, “Sometimes we’d get threatening phone calls but that didn’t deter us.

Padmanabhan Reddy
While he’s quick to rattle off tales of how he’s managed to utilise the RTI for the welfare of the public — over 1,800 so far — he also warns that using the RTI the right way is what people should be made aware of. “The public should understand that RTI is not a solution,” he says, “It’s only the first step. You need to present the information to the right officials.”

Padmanabhan also believes that the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments have been very cooperative, with one of his few complaints being that information needs to be digitised to make things easier for everyone.

‘RTI needs more publicity’
Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu has been associated with the RTI Act ever since its inception. He had filed his first RTI at the end or 2005, and has since filed around 1,000.

He says, “RTI could be useful in many ways. The broadly used three ways are. Firstly, to ask the government delivery service about a delay in service. Secondly, when you notice that there is misuse of government money. Thirdly, when an organisation or individual wants to use a certain data which is not known to many, for a cause.”

Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu
Rakesh also stressed on the fact that it’s important to spread awareness. “How much ever publicity we do, it could never match the reach of the government. For example, Mann Ki Baat reaches lakhs of people. While the law looks good on paper, the problem is publicity.”

Also, Section 4 of the RTI Act talks about proactive disclosure according to which organizations should put up every decision that effects people on public domain. One of the biggest problems has been enforcement of proactive disclosure, he adds. Rakesh is the founder of Factly, co-convener of National Campaign for People’s Right to Information and has delivered RTI training to around 12,000 people so far.