Indian Embassy in Washington DC implements RTI
NRIs Can Now File Right to Information Applications in the U.S.
June 21, 2007, Washington DC: After persistent efforts from volunteers
of the Association for India's Development (AID), the Embassy of India
in Washington DC has implemented the Right to Information (RTI) Act,
2005, bringing its operations fully under the Act's purview. The RTI
Act is being extensively used in India to obtain information from
Government offices, and this recent action extends the implementation
of the Act to all Indian citizens living in the US as well.
" Filing an RTI application is easier than the leave of absence
applications you wrote in your primary school" says Somu Kumar, a
volunteer of the Anti Corruption Team (ACT) of AID, living in
Virginia. Somu is one of the first Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to have
filed an RTI application from the U.S. and has requested information
that may help hold Dow Chemicals, headquartered in the USA,
accountable for Bhopal tragedy and to clean up the Bhopal plant that
continues to contaminate ground water.
Any Indian citizen with a valid Indian passport can now file an RTI
application to the Public Information Officer at the Indian Embassy
paying a fee of 24 cents. The Embassy will automatically transfer the
application to the relevant department in India if the information
requested does not pertain to the Embassy itself. The applicant should
get a response within 35 days or he/she can file an appeal to
Appellate Authority and later to the Chief Information Commissioner.
More details pertaining to filing can be found at
http://rti.aidindia.org/
"Our repeated attempts since November 2006 to get the Indian Embassy
officials in Washington DC to implement the RTI Act went unheard, and
then we were left with no other choice but to get in touch with the
Central Information Commissioner directly," explains Arun Gopalan, a
Maryland resident and an AID-ACT member. The Central Information
Commission issued an order around April 2007 bringing all the missions
abroad under the purview of the RTI act. It took one and a half more
months of campaigning by AID volunteers to get Indian Embassy in
Washington D.C. to accept its first RTI petition.
Close to 10 applications have been filed so far in what has been an
encouraging start to the RTI campaign in the U.S . ACT will continue
its efforts to spread awareness about Right to Information and urges
all citizens to participate actively. India's RTI is similar to the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the U.S . that is so extensively
used by the American public that 3-5 million FOIA applications are
filed every year.
AID's Anti-Corruption Team focuses on spreading awareness about the
RTI Act in the USA, and supports non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
working in India to fight corruption. AID has set up an
Anti-Corruption Fund and hopes to raise $50,000 to help with
implementation of RTI and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA), another progressive Indian act that is not achieving its
potential due to rampant corruption. The NREGA guarantees 100 days of
day-wage employment to all rural Indian families with an annual budget
of 3 billion dollars. Currently AID supports anti-corruption work in
New Delhi, Gujarat, UP, AP, Orissa, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
"The volunteers of the anti-corruption team are committed to helping
out the NRIs with applications. We really hope all the NRIs help us in
weeding out corruption entirely from the system by using RTI
extensively and supporting AID's Anti-corruption efforts" says Vinodth
Mohanam, a Portland resident and a member of AID-ACT.
The RTI Act 2005 is widely considered as one of the most progressive
laws ever passed in independent India. It empowers Indian citizens to
question government decisions, and makes it mandatory for the
government to disclose all information pertaining to those decisions.
RTI when implemented properly is strongly believed to be an effective
tool for controlling rampant corruption in government departments.
Association for India's Development (AID) is a US-based non-profit
organization, which supports grassroots groups working towards
sustainable, just, equitable and holistic development in India.
Media Contacts
Somu Kumar (Virginia, USA) – somukumar@gmail.com, (703) 728 8987
Arun Gopalan (Maryland, USA) garun1279@gmail.com, (240) 421 5510
AID Anti-Corruption Website : http://rti.aidindia.org
http://www.devactivism.org/2010/09/15/indian-embassy-in-washington-dc-implements-rti/
--
Urvashi Sharma
RTI Helpmail( Web Based )
aishwaryaj2010@gmail.com
Mobile Rti Helpline
8081898081 ( 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. )
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