HOLDING THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUINTABLE USING RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT (RTI)
1. Do you have any pending work with any department of the government?
2. Are they not doing your work and expecting or demanding a bribe?
3. Did you file a grievance application in a government department but they are simply not acting on it?
4. Did you make ay complaint against any official/citizen or any wrong doing, but without any result?
You can use the Right to Information Act to know the status of your application or work. The government will have to provide you the information within 30 days.Demanding the status under the law almost, always forces then to act and do your work first and then report a positive status. How can they say they did nothing?
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT
· Why are the streets and colonies so dirty?
· Why the manhole covers or footpath slabs over sewer lines missing, posing a danger to life?
· Why are the roads in your area in such a pathetic condition?
· Why are people dying of starvation in various parts of the country?
· Why are till so many people forced to live in abject poverty?
· Why your local municipality does so little and always claims that they have no funds?
· Why your local ration shop never has any ration?
· Why there is never any doctor or medicines at the government hospitals?
· Where have all the teachers in the government schools gone?
Some of us feel that we need good politicians and good bureaucrats. However, real change can come only when the people of this country have the power to hold their governments accountable. When that happens, no government or politician would dare to the corrupt, inefficient of insensitive.
HOW DO WE HOLD THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE
To make the government accountable, we need information regarding government decisions and functioning. The Right to Information Act empowers us to do just that. It gives us the right to obtain information from the government about batters that affect us in thousands of ways. Used innovatively, such information could lead to exposure of corruption and inaction, and make the government responsive and accountable.
The government spends so much money on various works in your area. You may and should ask for the details of all the works carried out by municipal body in your area. How much money was spent? On what works was it spent? Similar information was asked by people all over the country since October 2005. When the information was physically verified, it turned out that a number of works existed only on paper. Won’t you like to hold the government similarly accountable in your area? Under the RTI Act. you can demand from any department body.
· Any information pertaining to any of its departments.
· Photocopies of government contracts, payments, estimates, measurements of engineering works, etc.
· Samples of material used in the construction of roads, drains, buildings etc.
· To inspect any under-construction or completed works done by the government,
· To inspect government documents –books, registers, drawings, records, absolutely anything.
· The status of your complaints and requests.
Using RTI Act is quite simple. An average citizen with average education can begin to use it effortlessly within 5 minutes this is the time it takes to learn the broad rules.
K. K. Raman
Anna Trust, Coimbatore.
Related Links:
RTI applicant told to cough up Rs 11 lakh - Times Of India
Our Prime Minister Asks us to tighten our belts - but our 534 MPs collectively earn Rs.855 crores per year, just from the Government Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament (MP)
ReplyDeleteMonthly Salary : 12,000
Expense for Constitution per month : 10,000
Office expenditure per month : 14,000
Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) : 48,000 ( eg.For a visit from kerala to Delhi & return: 6000 km)
Daily DA TA during parliament meets : 500/day
Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train: Free (For any number of times)
(All over India )
Charge for Business Class in flights : Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)
Rent for MP hostel at Delhi : Free
Electricity costs at home : Free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge : Free up to 1 ,70,000 calls.
TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year : 32,00,000 [i.e . 2.66 lakh/month]
TOTAL expense for 5 years : 1,60,00,000
For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years :
8,54,40,00,000 (nearly 855 crores)
AND THE PRIME MINISTER IS ASKING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED, OUT PERFORMING CEOs TO CUT DOWN THEIR SALARIES.... .
This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities. .........
And this is the present condition of our country:
855 crores could make their life livable !!
Think of the great democracy we have........ .......
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL REAL CITIZENS OF INDIA ...
but,
STILL Proud to be INDIAN
I know hitting a delete button is easier...... .bt...... ...try 2 press fwd button 2 make people aware of it!
Reports have come in that Raju had 20 idlis for breakfast, five plates of rice and a bucket of rasam for lunch and 25 chapatis with two chickens for dinner. But the jail superintendent says these numbers are inflated. "You see, the habit is so deeply ingrained in Raju that he automatically inflates all figures," he added.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, his cellmate Srinivas Vadlamani, Satyam's ex-chief financial officer who has denied all knowledge of wrongdoing, said he didn't know whether he had any meals. "I am not aware whether I had breakfast, lunch or dinner," he said. "Am I in jail?" he asked.
Meanwhile, insiders say that Raju has decided to teach accountancy in order to impart his skills to a receptive audience. "I'm really excited at the prospect of being taught by such a master," said a murderer serving a life sentence. "My problem has been that I don't know where to hide the bodies," he explained, "I'm sure that a guy who can hide Rs 7,000 crore for so many years can easily hide a score of bodies."
A stream of visitors has also been arriving at the jail, all wanting to meet Srinivas Vadlamani. Inquiries revealed they were promoters of companies, eager to have him on their boards. "Where will I get such an ideal chief financial officer?" asked a person who said he was CEO of a company called Black Hole Ltd.
Even the jail superintendent says he is extremely happy with Raju. "He is a financial genius," he exclaimed. He said Raju had outlined a scheme that could save the jail a huge amount of money. "Raju explained that all I needed to do was to allow the inmates to choose their own guards. He said these guards would cost a fraction of the current salary being paid to jail warders. I was a little hesitant about prisoners choosing their own jailers at first, but relented when Raju said that it was exactly the same thing with companies — they all appoint their own auditors and nobody complains."
Incidentally, even the Naxalite prisoners lodged in the jail are very happy with Raju. "We have been working for decades to overthrow capitalism, with no effect," said their ringleader. "And then Comrade Raju comes along and wrecks the system from within, giving Indian capitalism a resounding blow." "We're electing him to the party's central committee," he added.
But Raju is unlikely to take up the offer. He has a job offer from Nigeria to run the huge network that sends scam emails to people promising to transfer billions of dollars lying in unclaimed money to them once they give their bank account numbers and a small advance payment. Unconfirmed reports say that to make the schemes look authentic they're thinking of asking accounting firm Pricewaterhouse to certify them.
Others say Raju is exploring a lucrative option in a related field. "He's thinking of becoming a godman," said a source, "Which is why he is reading religious books." Some also say that Raju is being paid a fat advance for a novel based on his Satyam swindle. "It's clear he has plenty of experience of writing fiction," pointed out a publisher.
And lastly, in a curious but related incident, teachers at a prestigious school in Hyderabad were shocked when young Bunty Reddy of class 5B told his class-teacher that his father was a male bar dancer. Investigations revealed, however, that his dad was actually an independent director on the boards of several companies. "In the circumstances, it's natural for the child to be ashamed of his parent," said the principal, "And that's why he tried to pass his dad off as a male stripper."
By all accounts, Satyam ex-chairman Ramalinga Raju is having a rollicking time in Chanchalguda jail. His popularity among the inmates, all of whom are in awe of a man who can make Rs 7,000 crore disappear, knows no bounds. "Some of us affectionately call him by his nickname Scamalinga," said a petty thief, "But most just call him Gurudev."
Rajrajkumar
http://www.coimbato re-corporation. com/Useful to Coimbatoreans
ReplyDeletehttp://pgportal. gov.in/
Government of India has an online Grievance forum. The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like Passport Office, Electricity board, BSNL/MTNL, Railways etc.
http://www.friendst osupport. org
provides comprehensive list of donors locationwise & their addresses.
http://www.saferind ia.com
to register a complaint regarding a crime, if the police at your place/ locality is not accepting the complaint.
www.csia.in
Official website of Mumbai airport. The website gives updates on flight information including real time updates, flight status and schedules of International & Domestic airlines, terminal wise operating schedules. The section on Airport guide includes the airport map, tourist attractions in Mumbai, services, customs etc
www.fhrai.com
This website gives the updated list of all the hotels listed under Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India. One can refer to it to find out the list of hotels & restaurants in any city in India (starting from 5 star to 1 star hotels). The address, contact details, facilities, services, rates are also included in this website
http://passport. nic.in/status. htm
provides status of Passport details for Regional Passport Offices across India.
http://www.cse. iitb.ac.in/ navigator/ index.html
IIT Bombay has launched "Mumbai Navigator" for people to find out how to reach from one place to another.
http://www.indianbl ooddonors. com
provides comprehensive list donors location-wise.
http://exim. indiamart. com/reference- directories/ indian-embassies -abroad.html-
Provides detailed list of names/ addresses/ phones/ fax numbers of Indian Consulates/ Embassies situated abroad.
http://www.xe. com/ucc.html
Currency convertor.
http://www.dharwad. com/pincode. html
Helps you to search for pincodes and city in India.
http://www.. mapmyindia. com/
India's first digital map. -- EXCELLENT WEBSITE
http://www.utiisl. co.in/pan/
On-line application form for PAN card.
http://www.jours- feries.com/ statique/ index_pays2. html
You can get the holiday lists of all countries.
http://www.india. gov.in/default. htm
Have a look at our national website! There is loads of information in it!
http://www.timeandd ate.com/worldclo ck
You will find the world clock under the link for different countries
http://www.howstuff works.com/
For knowing 'How anything works', like a car engine, an airplane, or currency, tall buildings etc
http://incometaxind iaefiling. gov.in/knowpan/ knowpan.jsp
If you're outside somewhere and if you want to know your PAN number then now it's just a click away
http://www.bankingo mbudsman. rbi.org.in
RBI's initiative to protect customers' rights in today's bank dominated environment.
Dear All
ReplyDelete5th Pillar India RTI service center has been opened in Thudiyalur area for the benifit of Publics of North Coimbatore District. Here we are providing free counceling and training about RTI Act.
The Publics and likeminded volunteers can join as a member of 5th Pillar India inthis center.
For further details contact the following....
ADDRESS:
42,VANIGA VALAGAM
METTUPALAYAM MAIN ROAD,
THUDIYALUR,
COIMBATORE-641034 .
Phone No:0422-2645064
Mobile No:9600841045