THIS was not exactly what the Right To Information Act was meant to achieve, but no one’s complaining.
At least in East of Kailash, where residents have filed RTI applications to find anxious MCD officials knocking at their doors within a few days, eager to solve any problem—the information asked for usually comes a month later.
The result: there’s virtually a rush to file applications, with residents in C and G Blocks having submitted as many as 25 within two months.
Says Biren De, a colony resident since 1987: ‘‘The day after I filed an RTI application asking for details on developmental work over the last year, and how the money was spent, a Junior Engineer from the MCD’s zonal office was at my doorstep. He asked me what work I wanted done and that he’d get it completed immediately. I told him I only wanted the information I had asked for.’’
De says he has never seen the MCD respond so fast ever since he moved into the colony in 1987. This welcome spin-off to the RTI Act was triggered by Sushmit Ghosh, a student from G Block, who filed the first application nearly two months ago, on the state of the colony’s roads.
‘‘The roads in this area were in a dismal state. The approach road was actually a kutcha road and the main road, through the colony, was pothole-ridden. After digging them up for the Sonia Vihar project, the agencies never restored or repaired these roads,’’ says Sushmit, who filed the application on October 15.
‘‘Days later, the MCD’s zonal office sent its men to tar the approach road and make it motorable. They patched up the potholes and even repaired the main road that runs past our colony. All this took place before I received the information asked for in the application,’’ says Sushmit.
Encouraged, Sushmit and his mother Tandra Ghosh, who have mobilised over 50 residents in both blocks, held a workshop on filing RTIs.
Since then, the residents have notched up several ‘‘victories’’.
An application filed by Poonam Jain resulted in the backlanes being revamped. ‘‘Like the others, an MCD official visited me soon after I filed the application,’’ she says.
Another application by Kaveri Menon, led to MCD sweepers and safai karamcharis, earlier unseen, reporting early every morning for work.
But residents say there are still some holes to be plugged. An application on horticulture and maintenance of the park revealed that the MCD had actually sanctioned money for installing a borewell, which never got done.