From government officials to the general public, V. Thiruvengadanathan has been a guiding light with regard to filing of applications under the Right to Information (RTI) act.
The 83-year-old resident of Madurai city said ever since the Act came into being in 2005, he had filed over 500 applications, a majority of which were on behalf of other persons.
“Once people knew that I had filed applications for a few under the RTI, they came asking for my help in filing RTIs for them. I started helping them the procedure and format for filing the applications.”
Stating that despite him having sought information under the RTI from many government departments, including the City Corporation, Mr. Thiruvengadanathan noted that it was tough to predict if they would respond on time. “Many departments that will once be willing to provide information might not do the same every time. Often, we have received very off-hand responses and we write to them again.”
Recollecting an incident when a school teacher greatly benefited from the RTI, Mr. Thiruvengadanathan said that the teacher from Madurai had been writing to a university in Odisha for several years asking for a recognition of her educational qualifications. “We finally had to send an RTI and found out through their response that her letters had been discarded since she was writing in a language not known to them. She then got her grievance redressed soon,” he said.
Internet savvy
The octogenarian, who is an internet savvy, said that he did not charge anything from people.
“Even if I have doubts regarding the filing of an RTI application for a specific issue, I try to read up on it online and keep myself abreast of the developments,” he explained.
Urging more people to use the RTI Act, he said that it was an excellent tool to get required information and clarifications right from potholes on the roads to major financial concerns with the government.
Published - October 12, 2015 12:00 am IST
