Die Hard Indian, Mumbai : Newsletter for January 2007
Something to think about – January 2007
Power of persistently writing letters and RTI – By Gaurang Damani
I generally like to quote the usefulness of RTI through our success in winning the towing case over Mumbai traffic police in the High court. But there are several small incidents where it can be used effectively.
CASE 1
We, the residents of Flank Road (Sion) were tired of the poor quality of the road, especially during monsoons. The traffic here is horrible and the potholes made it worse. We (societies and NGOs) had written 13 letters to the BMC about this problem, at regular intervals as follows:
{4/1/05; 4/3/05; 5/3/05; 13/4/05; 21/7/05; 13/9/05; 19/9/05; 30/9/05; 13/10/05; 17/10/05; 15/11/05; 15/3/06; 22/4/06}
Finally as an ordinary but tired citizen, I made an RTI application dated 28/4/06 asking for the status on the above mentioned letters. There was a reply from BMC dated 18/5/06, saying that our request was approved and the central road agency would (grid-lock) tile the road. This was a better option for BMC as compared to replying why nothing was done for 1.5 years. Ofcourse the rains came and work had to be delayed, but we finally have our tiled road. The moral of the story is to persist and then use RTI as the ultimate tool in the hands of the citizens.
CASE 2
An ordinary Sion resident Mr Girish Joshi wrote a simple letter (dated 2/1/06) to the Commissioner of Police at Traffic headquarters, Worli, requesting that the Sion flyover be made 2-way to ease the traffic problem. It was a brilliant suggestion which involved no additional cost to the tax-payer. The traffic department replied on 11/8/06 saying that the request had been granted. This simple intuitive suggestion has resulted in savings of crores of rupees in terms of better mileage for cars.
CASE 3
I wrote a letter to the local Matunga traffic chowky on 3/11/06, requesting that vehicles trying to go right towards Shanmukhananda hall from Kings Circle petrol pump causes a huge traffic jam extending all the way beyond Amulak school on RA Kidwai Rd. Though it seems that the vehicles have to travel the extra distance in order to go to Shanmukhananda hall, it already seems to be causing fewer traffic jams. This solution has been implemented on a trial basis from 1st week of December itself. The second leg of this suggestion is to open the 3rd lane of RA Kidwai Rd in the evenings for traffic towards Shanmukhananda hall. This matter is open to suggestion, where citizens can write to the traffic chowky.
Ofcourse, these may be isolated incidents of success. But, it is time that we atleast start writing letters to the concerned authorities. If writing letters seems to be tedious, then a simple call on toll-free number 1916 can be used to register the complaint. You dont even have to give your name to give your complaint. Then use a simple RTI to follow up!