Sancoale Free Legal Aid Cell – Awareness Program on RTI Act

Sancoale Free Legal Aid Cell under the guidance of Prof. Ashwini Naik organised a legal literacy program at M.E.S.College, Birla-Goa on 16^th March 2016.. Adv. Athnain Naik was the guest speaker. 

Ms.Reenal Redkar compered the program. The audience comprised of around 50 NSS students of M.E.S college. Their NSS Prof. in-charge ,Fatima Gomes was also present. 

Adv, Naik spoke of the objective of this act, i.e to tackle corruption, and for transparancy and accountability in government activities. He further spoke that, under this act, any person may request information from a "public authority" who is expected to reply within 30 days. If he refuses or delays then  Rs 250/- will be deducted from his salary per day for such a delay. He said that evry department has a PIO and its his duty to provide for information. He further spoke about the grounds on which information can be refused.

Rights that are available to a citizen under this act, are:-
1) ask any questions from the govt. or seek any information
2) take copies of any govt. documents
3) inspect any govt documents
4) inspect any govt. works
5) take samples of materials of any govt. work.

The fee for filing  for the information is minimal , i.e Rs.10 approximately. The application for asking information can be either hand written or typed, and no complicated procedure. Just your name, phone no. , and the specific information you need. He also spoke about the appellate authorities. He gave eg , of a village in Orissa. Where, money was shown on paper to be used to construct a pond by the govt. ,but it was not constructed. All the villagers filed an RTI and the concerned officers got suspended. This is the power of RTI. Just by asking, you get your work done. Since the authority has to reply within 30 days, or give reasons for not giving information. So instead of goin through that trouble, many a times, they do your work after you file a RTI. Often a lot of things start falling in place just by asking for information. For instance, you would get your ration card done just by your asking for the status of your application. The officials also get a clear message that the people of that area have become alert and any wrong doings in future would not remain hidden as they were in the past. So, their risks of getting caught increases. He concluded by telling the audience to be aware of their rights.

Prof. Ashwini Naik addressing the gathering