Corruption Watch

[Guest]

Ok, here's some good news.
The Right to Information has changed lives and made governments accountable

Here's an excerpt from the story.

Shivaji Raut, a schoolteacher in Satara, Maharashtra, has demanded information 62 times under the act. He has received information in 55 cases, been denied in seven, and gone in appeal for one of those seven. "My questions are related to the system, never personal," says Raut. The data that he sought on whether the state government had accounted for prevalent market rates while renewing leases on 114 government-held properties in Mahabaleshwar exposed irregularities to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore, and forced a temporary injunction on the process.

"The documents I’d obtained revealed that land in many cases had been leased out for a song." Asking for the list of people who had been granted licences for firearms in the district in the past five years revealed that many licences had been issued based on fake certificates ("Some were being used for poaching in the Koyna Valley near Satara"). When Raut asked for the names of those who had received liquor vending licences, it was found that many recipients were wives of local politicians.... The moral of all his stories: "The local administration behaves itself once it knows that people are watching." <!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->
.........................................
Twentysomething Triveni Devi used the law for reasons much more personal.With an uncertain income of Rs 400-600 a month, Triveni’s Antyodaya ration card is not just her entitlement to subsidised food, it’s her family’s entitlement to existence.

<b>So when the ration shop at Delhi’s Sundernagri kept denying Triveni her quota of wheat and rice month after month, it was "like being denied life." Till she chanced upon an RTI pamphlet.Triveni filed an application under the act. Forcing ration shop owner Maya Devi to reveal her records: 25 kg of wheat and 10 kg of rice were purportedly being issued to Triveni every month and the receipts even had Triveni’s fake thumb impression. The thrill of triumph still rings clear: "I had caught Maya’s fraud, I showed her I could sign my name!" Triveni remembers a frightened Maya Devi not only offering her six months of free ration but also Rs 20,000 if she promised not to file a complaint. But Triveni refused the money.</b>