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RTI Campaign in UP and Bihar Phase 2 |
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The major goals of the full-time volunteers include creation of an atmosphere for citizens to question the actions of the government and help in filing RTI applications for individual needs of the common people. Apart from that the volunteers also actively file and encourage other citizens to file RTI applications for social causes such as asking for accounts of public expenditure. This information is then audited with participation from public. Any discrepancies and corruption in the expenditure will be highlighted to build pressure on local administrations to function transparently. The volunteers also are engaged in monitoring the effective delivery of government services such as PDS, mid-day meal etc as well the functioning of government programs like Public health centers and NREGA.
Achievements
Some of the key achievements of the sustained campaign by the RTI full time volunteers are listed here.
- Public Information Officers who are responsible for disseminating the information requested via an RTI application by a citizen were appointed in many districts of UP and a couple of blocks in Bihar after effective campaigning by the volunteers. Most blocks and districts in which the volunteers are operating have a regular RTI camp held two to four times a month to increase awareness and usage of RTI.
- Through volunteer's sustained efforts on filing for job cards under the NREGA scheme and follow up work, about 80% workers have at least 50 days work and are paid a wage of 100/ work day in Hardoi district, UP. This is a significant improvement compared to 20% of workers receiving about 20 days work and partial wages as determined by a social audit conducted in November 2006. The volunteers have started NREGA committees in some blocks to oversee the effective and transparent implementation of the scheme.
- The volunteers by encouraging people's participation are working towards keeping the government officials under constant public scrutiny. Complaints on any corrupt actions are regularly made to the high level officials such as the District Magistrate. As a result several corrupt Block Development Officers (BDO) have sought to be transferred to another region.
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