Successful activism requires the use of multiple acts and strategies to achieve the goal of obtaining relevant information quickly and using it for the good of society. That was the message from Anil Galgali, an RTI activist whose prolific work, using information gleaned from government sources and backed by authenticated documents, has repeatedly made media headlines and exposé the misuse of power, corruption and diversion of funds by government officers and politicians. Mr Galgali generously shared his modus operandiwith Moneylife Foundation members at a talk titled "Some Tips to Success in RTI on civic and infrastructure issues that affect us" on Wednesday.
One interesting observation was that filing appeals to under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, is time consuming. Instead, he has two suggestions. The first, is to take the opportunity to inspect documents, under section 4 of the Act, which allows the person filing the application to meet RTI officials and persuade them to part with the information, or collect authenticated photocopies on the spot. It easily eliminates the 30 days period under the Act to respond to a query and obviates the need to file an appeal. He also suggested that filing a fresh application, that is differently worded, often works better than an appeal. Sometimes activists themselves are not able to frame their query well leading to a lack of response, he said. Sometimes a recalcitrant information officer may have been transferred and a new official will look at a fresh application differently. The long pendency of cases at the appeal stage had made appeals less effective, he said. "Merely filing application may not give you relevant information. Sometimes, you need to visit the office from where you are seeking information and enquire about the status of your RTI application. This method has proved to be beneficial for me over the years", he said.
He was also a strong votary of using mechanisms such as the Lok Shahi Din, to seek redress, when information was being deliberately denied or suppressed.
Since the implementation of RTI Act in 2005, Maharashtra has witnessed 12 deaths and 24 assaults on activists. When asked, if he feels threatened while procuring information under RTI on several 'sensitive' issues, Mr Galgali says, "Ever since I have been using RTI, I never received any threat nor faced any intimidation from anyone. But this is how life is. Some people tried to bribe me through advertisement in my magazine. Nevertheless, I told them, ours is a small publication, whose turnover is lesser than the advertisements they were proposing. We rejected it. In my personal opinion, you need two hands for clapping. I may be wrong. But this may answer why there are attacks on some RTI activists."
He also advised RTI activists to be cautious and ensure that their work is done in public interest and not to push an agenda. Like other effective RTI activists, Mr Galgali also expressed concern at the growing trend among politicians and bureaucrats to tarnish reputation of activists and accuse them of having ulterior motives. "I agree that there are few people, who may be misusing the RTI Act. One person even asked a query in over 6,500 words, which is quite huge for any public information officer (PIO) to respond in 30 days. But then we need to educate people on using RTI Act properly to get desired information and then using alternate forums, like the Lok Shahi Din or Lokayukt office, to take the matter to its conclusion," Mr Galgali, concluded.
An interesting observation that Mr Galgali made in this connection was that MLAs, bureaucrats and corporators are often unaware of the rules and GRs issued from time to time; consequently, they are sometimes caught on the wrong foot without meaning to violate the law. This is often the case when they refuse to vacate government bungalows after their term. Even here, the more savvy ones quickly pay up and avoid embarrassment in the media. But Mr Galgali's point was that the government itself ought to spend some time in educating and guiding elected representatives on their rights and responsibilities, especially when it came to perks and privileges. "Not all politicians are corrupt, some want to do the correct thing but don't know the rules and GRs", he said.
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