THE INDIAN EXPRESS ( 13 November 2007)
AWARENESS about the Right to Information (RTI) may be low in a majority of the panchayats in Haryana the but Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), an NGO, has been carrying out awareness campaigns among the rural and urban masses about it. No wonder as a result of this awareness campaign, a woman Sarpanch from Mahendragarh district has used the RTI as a tool to exercise her right and get all the information she wanted. There are other examples as well of people from both rural and urban areas who used the RTI for getting information. Talking to The Indian Express Krishan Tyagi, PRIA Coordinator form Haryana, said Beena Devi, Sarpanch of Gehali Maksudpur Gram Panchayat, Narnaul Block in Mahendragarh district, was a beneficiary of the RTI Act. The programme-cum-Block Development and Panchayat officer had allegedly taken over the charge of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) from the Gram Panchayat, Sarpanch, Beena Devi, and handed it over to another Gram Panchayat member, Deciding not to take things lying down, Beena Devi filed an RTI application to the programme officer cum BDPO and asked the reason why the charge had been taken from her. When she did not get any reply form the BDPO, Beena Devi approached the Chief information Officer (CIC) Haryana. G. Madhavan when the concerned BDPO heard about the complaint to the CIC he handed over to Beena Devi. The CIC called both the parties for a hearing at Chandigarh and asked the BDPO to provide all the information to the Sarpanch. The CIC also assured Beena Devi that punishment would be given to the programme officer for not providing information on time under the RTI. Citing another case, Krishan Tyagi said social worker Totaram Bhilwara a resident of Ward Number 15 Narnaul Municipal Corporation had written a number of applications to the district and state administration seeking information on various projects, but never got any reply. However, on the initiative of PRIA when he used the RTI for obtaining information related to streetlights, sewerage projects, roads, etc. he received the relevant information within two days. Similarly, Hanuman Sharma, an active citizen leader from Amarpur Jorasi Gram Panchayat. Narnaul, used the RTI to get the information he wanted. Krishan Tyagi said there were many such instances where the common citizens asserted their rights through the RTI. Unfortunately, so low is the awareness about the RTI in a number of panchayats in Haryana that most of the Sarpanches are not even aware that they had been appointed Public Information Officers at the Gram Panchayat level. No wonder very few applications seeking official information are being taken care of by them. The PRIA had recently held an orientation camp in Mahendragarh and Narnual districts to create awareness about the importance of RTI in the Panchayats and municipalities and how it can be used to make these institutions accountable and transparent.