Now, become a certified RTI activist in five sessions

sidmis · #1 05-31-2008, 09:46 PM

Now, become a certified RTI activist in five sessions
Reported by Yogita Rao in D N A Friday, May 30, 2008 02:18 IST

KC Law College will start two courses on how to file precise RTI
applications from July

You no longer need to be bogged down by the tricky loopholes in the
Right to Information (RTI) Act or be taken for a ride by officials. A
law college in South Mumbai has started a course that will help
citizens become certified RTI activists who know the nuances of filing
an RTI application the right way.

KC Law College, Churchgate, is starting two courses on RTI — a
foundation course and an advanced course, which would be the first of
their kind in the country. The idea is to teach people the
fundamentals of filing RTI applications.

"People need to learn how to ask for information. It is a wonderful
weapon available to us and we should make full use of it," said
Neelima Chandiramani, the college's principal. "People do not even
know how to ask to-the-point questions and end up writing long-winded
applications."

The idea of starting the course was a result of brainstorming between
Chandiramani and activist Shailesh Gandhi, who will be conducting the
sessions. The course will begin from July and will run into five
sessions of three hours each. The classes will be held on Saturdays
and Sundays.

Most of the course will be based on practical assignments, with
candidates filing applications on topics given by the college. While
both the courses will be open for all, the college expects people who
have already filed applications to enroll for the advanced course.

Gandhi said, "Information officers sometimes fool people if the
questions are not direct. Though there is no perfect solution to avoid
such discrepancies, the course will help people fine tune their skills
as RTI activists." Gandhi said 95% of the applications he filed never
exceeded 150 words.

Mahesh Vaswani, the chairman of legal aid committee of GJ Advani Law
College, said, "Filing applications should be made as easy as clicking
the mouse on a computer." The committee had conducted RTI workshops
for slum dwellers in 20 suburbs in the western region.

DNA - Mumbai - Now, become a certified RTI activist in five sessions - Daily News & Analysis

**ganpat1956** · #2 05-31-2008, 10:27 PM

Hopefully, soon they will start correspondence courses for outstation activists.

**drjeme** · #3 05-31-2008, 10:50 PM

can any body give contact detail 4 this course?

**opsharma** · #4 06-01-2008, 12:11 AM

Excellent idea , only hope it is free of cost i.e;cost borne by KC college or some NGO.Because when one pays for courses like Certified Finance Advisor,Certified Insurance advisor etc one tends to recover money as soon as possible as a professional. And now a Certified RTI Activist ,it does evokes fear of an earning/paid professional.

**karira** · #5 06-01-2008, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drjeme

can any body give contact detail 4 this course?

I think you can directly contact K C Law college at Churchgate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by opsharma

Excellent idea , only hope it is free of cost i.e;cost borne by KC college or some NGO.Because when one pays for courses like Certified Finance Advisor,Certified Insurance advisor etc one tends to recover money as soon as possible as a professional. And now a Certified RTI Activist ,it does evokes fear of an earning/paid professional.

That will make them RTI "middlemen".

Another good idea would be to train many "trainers" from different cities and then ask them to go back to their hometowns and conduct similar courses for citizens.

**colnrkurup** · #6 06-01-2008, 07:35 AM

I still maintain that it is the PIO, AA and Commissions who need training. The distinquishing feature of the RTI Act 2005 is its PEOPLE-FRIENDLY approach. The PIOs AAs and Commissions are to be trained to understand that WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA does not want them to hide anything from them to the extend permissiible. They should be made to read the RTI Act, especially proviso to Section 8(1)(j) that "the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person " .If the PIOs, AAs and the Commissions maintain a people friendly attitude why should the cityzen undergo any training ? Training what ? All they have to do is to 'ask the information'. If one is hungry, does one need any training to ask for food ? A people-friendly bureaucracy can absorb the mistakes if any in asking the information and guide them to facilitate getting the information.. Will any section of the bureaucracy dare to put forth the type of denials as being done by them now when they receive 'starred question from the Parliament ? As I brought out earlier the bureaucracy should me made to think as to "WHY NOT " instead of "WHY " give the information.

The Law College can do better things for the RTI Act instead of wasting their efforts in the guise of imparting training. Of cource, if the intention is to make a quick buck, I have no comments.

sidmis · #7 06-01-2008, 08:20 AM

Quote:

The Law College can do better things for the RTI Act instead of wasting their efforts in the guise of imparting training. Of cource, if the intention is to make a quick buck, I have no comments.

Col Kurup is right.

There's absolutely no need for such programs.

All these training programs should be squarely aimed at the PIOs/FAAs/SICs/CICs who desperately need Training/ Help/guidance/orientation etc. on how to supply info.

A regular visit to RTIindia.org shall make a novice an expert within a month. IMHO

Sidharth

**karira** · #8 06-01-2008, 08:46 AM

I think the push is needed.

Even amongst the so called educated and middle classes, there is lack of knowledge about RTI and its effectiveness...leave alone its usage.

Just a example of my own colony:

The roads are in terrible shape since last 16 months and inspite of 7 visits to the concerned PA, there was no response. Finally I filed a RTI application. What happened since then I will recount after the whole episode is over.
But in the colony of 80 residents, ONLY 3 had heard about RTI. No one knew how to draft/apply/submit/etc. Some retired bureaucrats even warned me that I was taking a "confrontationist" path and would face the "consequences" form the "powers that be" (I had to calm them down by promising them that I would get them to see their ACR's and DPC minutes, for academic interest...He He He He LOL...that did the trick !)

Please do not go by this forum....because it is devoted only to RTI.
Talk to your domestic help, your auto driver, your dhobi, your barber, your vegetable vendor, your office boy, etc...and you will realise that there is so much more to be done, even amongst the educated.

sidmis · #9 06-01-2008, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Talk to your domestic help, your auto driver, your dhobi, your barber, your vegetable vendor, your office boy, etc...and you will realise that there is so much more to be done, even amongst the educated.

Yes you have a point there.

But what you raised mainly concernes with awareness related issues.

People are ignorant about it because they have not been told so by their respective Govts.

Whole of Sec 26 of RTI act is there to take care of most of these issues. Basically it's the Govt's job to inform "We THE PEOPLE of INDIA" about the Act and it's usefullness and it's nitty-gritty .

An extensive and concerted campaign in line of "Pulse Polio" is what required for this.

If the Govt. is shirking away from it's responsibility the it's the duty of the informed citizenry to make the Govt. do it's duty first

Seeking information from PA's should be a simple affair. It should not involve such extensive exposure to legal jargons.
And no need to get Diplomas/PHDs to do that.

**colnrkurup** · #10 06-01-2008, 10:27 AM

As usual, you are on the dot Mr.Sidharth. What WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA need is 'AWARENESS' and not "TRAINING". No one can train 110 crores cityzen on RTI to make them avail the fruit of RTI. Rather the benefit of RTI should not be deprived to them just for want of training. To-day even a 5 year old rustic child is aware that 'Murder" is a crime. No one train him on that. But somehow or other he is made aware that murder is a crime. Similarly the government should make its cityzen aware that their "Masters" or "Yes Ministers" or "Mai Baaps" are answerable to the information he desire to ask the same way the MPs and MLAs are not denied any information in the Parliament and Legislature.

Give the responsibility to all the Councillors , MLAs and MPs , the same way they were given special MLA/MP Funds.
The government waste crores of rupees in advertise through tele-cast the question/answer sessions of the parliaments and Assemblies. What stop them from doing so at least odd hearings of CIC and SICs. In fact certain SICs like SIC, Kerala conduct their hearings "IN CAMERA". I don't think that the government and the PRESS is not aware of it. Has any of our National Media brought this out ?

It appears that our government consider that enactment of RTI Act was an accidental mistake and wish to keep it concealed to the extend possible lest lesser number cityzen bother their "Yes Ministers"

What efforts on governments part one see tht the cityzen are made aware of the RTI Act ? How many documentaries they display in Cenema theatre or advertisements in media about RTI ? I think even our forum has posting conveying that hardly any effort is made by the government despite Section 26 of the Act ?

It is high time for us to ignore the window dressings and pressurise our elected representatives whenever we come across them.

**sajeev** · #11 06-01-2008, 03:19 PM

Very true. Nobody 'higher up there' is interested in telling us what the truth is. Even when we go to a doctor, he/she is not interested in telling us frankly what the diagnosis is. They just want to dole out some medicines. Questions are unwelcome. Same with the officials at the govt. offices. When I went to submit an RTI application to the Regional Passport Office at Kolkata, the person at the Information Counter even threatened me, asking me what I knew about RTI, as if this was a big crime. This is why we need conscientisation, and education on how to use this big weapon. If some of us who take up this social responsibility of reaching this Act to the common people know well how to use it and what exactly can be done with it, then it will be a service to our neighbourhood. As Karira mentioned earlier, most people with whom I talked about RTI, all educated people, knew that there was an Act like that, but knew almost nothing about what it was and how it could be of use. I only wish I was a little more educated on this, and I am sure I will be able to help more.

**taurus** · #12 06-01-2008, 05:59 PM

There is no harm in conducting such a course. No single measure can educate the entire nation. At least some target group will be benefitted.

**The Great** · #13 06-01-2008, 08:54 PM

Sidharth is correct-that a regular visitor to this site become an expert. Personally, I am unable to bring my friends to this site, as my friends of my age group do not have the knowledge of Internet, though they are educated.

sidmis · #14 06-03-2008, 11:46 AM

Prominent RTI Activist Sri Sailesh Gandhi has given clarifications on this issue in Hum Janenge discussion forum. His post is reproduced below.

There is small error in the reporting. What was announced was that a certificate course was being started for getting knowledge on RTI. There is a foundation course and an advancded course. This is an attempt by me with the help of KC college to spread RTI. The reporter called this "Become a Certified RTI activist."

Love
shailesh

---------------------------------

**sagginyou** · #15 06-03-2008, 11:04 PM

A brilliant move...
as oscar wild said..u cant stop an idea whose time has come

**taurus** · #16 06-04-2008, 10:09 PM

Mr Sailesh Gandhi's clarification just shows how our journalists distort info.

**DineshK** · #17 06-04-2008, 11:27 PM

That is called the "communication gap".

**taurus** · #18 06-09-2008, 08:07 PM

That is not really 'communication gap'. It is sensational journalism.

**murgie** · #19 06-09-2008, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colnrkurup

The government waste crores of rupees in advertise through tele-cast the question/answer sessions of the parliaments and Assemblies. What stop them from doing so at least odd hearings of CIC and SICs. In fact certain SICs like SIC, Kerala conduct their hearings "IN CAMERA". I don't think that the government and the PRESS is not aware of it. Has any of our National Media brought this out ?

This is a SPLENDID suggestion. I realize that unlike in some countries the media is not allowed to record, let alone broadcast live, judicial proceedings in India. But given that RTO proceedings count only as "quasi-judicial" shouldn't some journalist push the envelope and seek to cover live at least the occasional RTI hearing, as the Colonel suggests? I think it will be very good for your ratings too!!!

"In camera" hearings MUST be a violation of law. Since PAs have brought in an arbitrary number of peopl

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