Fight Corruption... File RTI

This blog is about the latest tool provided by the government to fight against red-tapism. As i mentioned in one of my previous blogs that i was trying to get my NGO registered in Society Registration office Merrut. It has been around 7 months, 15 rounds to Merrut and 25-30 calls to the concerned person ( P. K. Pradhan or popularly known as Pradhan jee) with no effect. One easiest option was to pay bribe and get it done. Second option was to get a recommendation from upper level ( Sifarish) and make it fast. But we have decided that we will use none and will go only in a manner a common citizen, having no any other official powers should go.

And then we went for RTI way. Under RTI one can put his queries to any government office and the department has to reply in a month. So i prepared an RTI myself , with no help from any lawyer just with the help of a website http://www.parivartan.com/ . Then i went to merrut and asked the PIO to receive it. PIO in turn advised me to meet Pradhan jee first and then submit it . So i again told Pradhan jee that it has been 7 months and no work. Pradhan jee asked me to write the details on a paper when i submitted what document (with almost no interest). And then i simply gave him my RTI to Pradhan jee as all the dates were mentioned on it . Pradhan jee went through all the dates and all the queries i have asked.

After that, Pradhan jee was not in a very good mood but the good thing was... he started working i.e. collected all my papers ( and i could see my papers were being opened first time) and started processing them and also helped me in completing the missing papers. Earlier he always talked polite but never worked, this time he was rude but working :) . And finally he told me that i could collect the certificate next Wednesday. So even i did not have to submit RTI and things worked. So it was a good lesson to learn and a way to fight corruption as a common man.

Few things learnt in this process are :-
1. Whatever you submit in any government office, always prepare 2 copies and don't forget to take the receiving on second copy . Also make sure date is mentioned clearly on the receiving so that u can show it later as a proof.

2. Keep your documents complete and fair.

3.The main query i asked was that - please tell me that in last 7 months with whom my application was lying and for what duration and what was the action taken by that person in that duration.

4. Rights are there to support us to fight against corruption, we just need to be aware and be patient .

Few things are still unanswered , in my case i had enough time , so i could bear the delay in process but if someone is in a hurry , probably he/she will submit to the pressure of time and will adopt the easier way of bribing . But things will change only when we will have a desire to do so.