Magic of RTI: Mention word, get job done

HT Correspondent, New Delhi, July 11, 2006: Apart from getting thousands of pending jobs done through RTI applications, Drive Against Bribe campaign can also claimed to have succeeded in creating awareness about the magic of mere mention of right to information.
For example, on Tuesday, the camp at Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium received two happy visitors who had just come to inform volunteers that the very mention of the Right to Information Act had got their jobs done.
A relative of 27-seven-year-old Atiq Hussain, a businessman from Dilshad Garden, was not getting ration for six months despite having a valid card. "The PDS shop kept saying that there were some problems with the card and we needed to go to higher officials and get it sorted out," he said.
After days of fighting with the men at the ration shop, Hussain decided to pull the RTI trick. "I told them that I was going to file an RTI application," he said. The next day, a man came to Hussain's relative and informed her that she would be getting her ration from now on and that there was no need to bring RTI in the picture. "Actually, I was never going to file an application. But I knew the threat would do the trick," Ranjan laughed.
He came to the camp to inform that he had got the clever idea after reading about the success of the ongoing drive in this newspaper.
In another instance, Smitha Hegde of Janakpuri approached camp members to tell a similar story.
"My husband had lost his passport and applied for a duplicate one three months back. We learnt that the job does not take even three months," she said. Smitha went to the local passport office and told an official that she would be filing an RTI application. "When I asked him how to file an RTI application the officer promised that he would have my passport ready in two days. And he kept his promise," Smitha said.
On Day 11 of the camp, 282 applications were registered at four different camps. Nearly 500 people visited throughout the day. The national help-line of the drive assisted around 1,132 callers from across the country.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/htbribe/story_140706.shtml

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