Right To Information: Success Stories
The Drive Against Bribe Campaign in Rajasthan in Beawar helped a Right to Information applicant to get response from the government regarding his land.
5 Mumbai custom officers found to have overstayed in their departments in violation of Central Vigilance Commissionguidelines are now transferred.
Pune Municipal Corporation office-bearers get notices for misuse of vehicles
In the non-descript town of Akot, a cloth merchant—who has studied only up to Class XII—has used the Maharashtra Right to Information (MRTI) Act to ask for information on alleged corruption by Maharashtra State Electricity Board staffers. When information wasn’t given, he used the punitive clause of the Act to make an Assistant Engineer pay a fine. The amount by itself, Rs 250 per day for 13 days, is not much but it has sent shock waves throughout the MSEB.
If people wish, they can force the government to change its decision by using the right to information. Alert citizens in Mumbai’s Chembur area set a unique example by forcing the Government to reverse the transfer orders of an honest official in their area. Sudhir Naik, an Assistant Commissioner in Greater Mumbai Metropolitan Council was transferred to the BMC headquarters.
Based on Mr Kewal Semlani's application under MRTI, the Chief Engineer (Road and Traffic) of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai levied a penalty of Rs 500 each on two pay and park contractors for incidences of lapses. Also the contract of M/s Magentz was terminated.
Sudesh Shukla has unleashed the potential of the Right to Information Act like no one else — he has filed 80 applications so far with different agencies and met with considerable success. The feather in his cap, however, has been his use of the Act to get back his apartment from a housing society which claimed he was not a member.
Three-and-a-half-year-old Anshu will be going to a public school from tomorrow. The passage has not been easy and doors were slammed on her but her father, social worker Rajiv Kumar Sharma, did something that shows the way to other parents. With Delhi government dragging its feet on implementing the quota for the poor, Sharma used the Right to Information Act.
Day 3 of the Drive Against Bribe campaign saw a bastion coming down. That of resistance of the Provident Fund Office towards RTI.