Tamil Nadu - Chennai

MLAs to join hands for RTI Act awareness campaign

CHENNAI: On the eve of the third anniversary of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Members of Legislative Assembly cutting across the political divide will join hands in a human chain to promote awareness of the Act on Monday.

The human chain is one of the many events planned as part of a 10-day State-wide awareness campaign. In the past three years, the number of RTI petitions has increased steadily, said Madhav V, an activist of the Association for India’s Development, one of the organisations behind the campaign. The first year saw 8,000 petitions being filed, and the number went up to 30,000 in the second year and 1,20,000 in the third, he said quoting the State Chief Information Commissioner. Yet, a large section of the population did not know how to use the Act, which was passed in 2005. Citing an example, Vijay Anand of Fifth Pillar India, an organisation working against corruption, said that when he went to colleges to talk about the Act, most students had never seen an RTI petition. “I used to wave a blank sheet of paper to tell them that it was not any special form,” he said. Periodic awareness camps were conducted to address this.

As part of the campaign, stalls would be established outside five tahsildar offices in the city to educate people on using the Act to address various problems such as delay in issue of caste certificates. On October 17 and 18, a public session would be held at Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya at T. Nagar, to sensitise visitors to the Act and help individuals file applications.

Similar campaigns would be conducted in various districts, Mr. Madhav said. Besides public awareness, government departments and the Information Commission need to be responsive for the success of the RTI Act, he said. So, the campaign would also focus on issues such as delay in the State Information Commission.

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