an anecdote from Chirag, a nishqam volunteer

In the month of February 2007 , AID Delhi in collaboration with JOSH had organized a youth task force to work for the cause of transparency in government departments . Our first project was to work on Delhi roads for which we had filed more than 100 RTI’s on different PWD road projects within the city.

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Being an active part of the same group ,I had filed two RTI’s ; one related to MB road and the other related to Press Enclave road near my house. I had filed these RTI’s in March 2007 . However, I did not get a single reply from PWD for a period of two months . Taking cognizance of this fact, I filed a complaint straight to the Central Information Commission on 7th March, 2007.

From the period of June 2007 till November 2008, I was forwarded various letters originally sent to PWD department asking them to offer their comments on denial of information. However , not a single official letter came about from the side of PWD department .

On 25th November 2008, the appeal was finally listed for hearing. I had gone there to take my case. Mr. ML Sharma , information commissioner CIC was to hear this complaint . In the hearing again no one was present from the side of PWD .It was apparent that all letters were going unheeded by them. However, Mr. ML Sharma assured me that documents would be made available to me under the RTI act.

On 30th January, 2009 I got the letter apprising me of the decision taken by CIC .One Superintended Engineer of the PWD was directed to present the information without further delay. However no punishment was made.

Finally on 19th February, 2009 I got a phone call from Mr Vivek Kumar Gupta , Assistant Engineer ,PWD who works on MB road .He called me up to set a date for inspection .Also he offered many apologies for the lack of information made available to me for all these years.

Finally on this Saturday (21st February 2009), I went for inspection to the PWD office in Ishwar Nagar . Two friends of mine , Faizi a civil engineer from Aligarh University and Mohtashim Hashmi , a college friend accompanied me in the inspection .

We reached the PWD office around 12 P.M .An executive engineer of PWD as well as various other staff of PWD were present in the office .All in all, six engineers of the PWD were present in the inspection .We complained about the sorry state of affairs of the MB road since a very long time now . Various complaints were passed from our side. We could find the rules and specifications being compromised by them in the construction of roads like there was no soil testing which otherwise has to precede any construction activity on the road. Also various other technicalities were seriously compromised by them and they were pointed out by my friend Faizi .I ,being a computer engineer , could not really understand the technical terms being used by Faizi . However , the exec engineer and the assistant engineer were red faced on more than several occasions within the inspection . They offered various original as well as other general excuses for their laxity in work .These included hindering work by various other departments of the government like DJB , Delhi Traffic police , RWA associations , stay orders by courts , Electricity Board etc. While we did understand some of these excuses which clearly do take place in city roads. But we were clear in the sense that these conditions are prevalent everywhere in Delhi and these do not warrant the road being cut on all seasons of the year .We also pointed out that the designs of U-turns on MB road were unsatisfactory and a layman could do a better job than that .The exec engineer being red faced offered countless excuses and blamed the Traffic Police for the same. However they agreed to correct the same within a few days .At last, we were presented with the full set of documents .My fiend Faizi while observing the documents pointed out that some pages in the original document relating to Morth specifications were missing. Thereafter they did present the same and various inconsistencies could be seen. We did take a photocopy of the same.

Finally we took their leave .The assistant engineer told me to come to his office regularly and study the various issues, which he faces in the construction activities. I accepted the offer for the same. Finally I would like to say that RTI is a great weapon, which has been given by the govt. to the people to check corruption. Using RTI, we can increase participation of the common man ( aam admi) in the development project being doled out for him. RTI can be used in all departments of the government and it can bring about a tremendous change in the society .It has not only the potential to change the ‘chalta hai’ attitude of public servants but also to change the ‘kuch nahi ho sakta’attitude of ordinary citizens of this country .It’s an act through which common people like you and me can hold the govt officers by their collars for their indolence in work. But the only request I would have for people is that to not this tool for personal vendettas or for fun .This is a very serious act and if its used inappropriately it can negate the aim which its sets to target . We did burn a lot of time of all these govt employees .And so we realized that anyone who is not serious can kill a lot of precious time uselessly for these public servants .

-Chirag Kapoor