Right to Information (RTI) training camps

By the virtue of my office as the Convenor PMYSA Odisha, MoPR, Govt. of India ( well now Ex. Office - ‘Bhootpurva’) and also because of the several pro-poor programs run by the social cause organization which I head, I am closely associated with the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in all the 30 districts of Odisha. It is not the matter of PRI members or public in general being trained about RTI or knowing about the RTI act, it is their active participation in the process which really matters at the end of the day. Several PRI & RTI training camps have been and are being conducted in Odisha. Most of them have been NGO driven with the support of State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) & UNDP. A decent amount of budget too is being spent by the Govt. for the same. Yes, no doubt, awareness about a term called ‘RTI’ , about how to seek information and that one has a right to ask a question, is certainly growing  but what does one do with ‘this’ awareness if he/she has no further path to go on?

For example, I put up a RTI application and get to know about the number of Indira Aawas dwellings provided in my village. Now, how do I find out  that some XYZ is a class three govt. employee in the state secretariat and why his 22 year old private school educated  son has been issued with a BPL card and on top of it he has been allotted with  an Indira Aawas dwelling? Where as everybody in the village is aware of the poor financial condition of one ABC, yet, he has not been provided with the said.

Can RTI  provide an answer for what can be done to put a check on this?

Or

Can RTI provide an answer for, Why the Sarpanch and the Village Samiti Secretary of a certain panchayat would charge Rs. 10,000/- to nominate a name for issuance of a Below Poverty Level (BPL) card? If one can afford Rs.10K for a bribe then how come he is enlisted as BPL?

Cases like the above said,  by chance, were brought into my notice  and it could  be sorted out because of a certain access, position and some what arm twisting of a few. There are so many such cases which never get reported and go unnoticed or are brushed under the carpet for vested interest of a few crooks.

The RTI is a fantastic tool. I do not oppose it and neither do I oppose the trainings being conducted, they are a must but what ‘there after’? To achieve the desired reform in governance, shouldn’t we be thinking about that ‘there after’?

Today the flagship Committee (of which I am an integrated part) meeting of the Odisha Pradesh Congress is being held at Bhubaneswar and I am tossing this ‘there after’ topic.