Any citizen of India who desires to obtain any information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 may make a request to the Public Information Officer/Assistant Public Information Officer, preferably in the application format, in writing or through electronic means.
Keep three things in Mind,
1) Attach a court fee stamp of rs.10/- with every RTI application. In case of filing RTI in a central govt office, attach a postal order of Rs.10/- instead of court fee stamp. This fee is exempted for below poverty level people. but for that you have to attach BPL certificate.
2) It is necessary to have an extra copy of the application on which the public information officer will give you stamp of his dept and write 'copy received'. this will a proof of application filed.
3) Public Information Officer (PIO) is supposed to give the demanded information within 30 calender days.
You can file an appeal to his senior Information officer if information is not received in 30 days/ information received is incorrect or partial. Do not forget to mention in the appeal to fine the PIO. Law prescribes Rs. 250/- per day fine for the PIO if the information is not received within the prescribed time.
APPLICATION FORMAT FOR INFORMATION UNDER RTI ACT 2005 To The Public Information Officer/ Asstt. Public Information Officer
Application under RTI Act 2005
- Name of the applicant:
- Address of the Applicant:
- Subject of Information:
- Details of Information: ( please enclose separate sheet, if required, indicating specific details of information required and the preferred medium i.e. inspection, photocopy, softcopy, etc. This includes specific details like duration of information is required etc.)
- Applicant is from below poverty line: Yes/ No
- Send information by post/ register post/ I'll collect the information by hand.
DECLARATION I state that the information sought does not fall within the restriction contained in Section 8 & 9 of the RTI Act and to the best of my knowledge it pertains to your office.
Place:_________
Date :___________
Signature of the applicant.
Some guidelines :
While filing an RTI application, the framing of the questions is very important. A slight misunderstanding or vague questions gives the Public Information Officer a chance to reject your application. Follow these guidelines:
- Use a white sheet of paper to write an application. There is no need to using Note-sheet, or the Court stamp paper. You can use your letter pad for asking for information.
- The matter can be hand written, or typed. There is no compulsion of typing the content.
- Make sure the application is legible and easy to read.
- There is no restriction on number of pages for asking information.
- There are also no restriction on number of questions that can be asked in one application. However, it is generally advisable to ask restrict one application with limited set of questions and generally related ones.
- Be very specific & ask to the point questions. Don't ask vague questions.
- Ask as many short questions as you like ,but don't ask for voluminous information.
- Ask information always by writing your name and signature, and not by your post, as only citizen have the right to information.
- Do not ask a question containing 'WHY'! For example, questions like why you failed to pass the bill, is liable to be rejected for not covering under RTI Act.
- You can ask for reasons behind a "administrative" or a "quasi-judicial" decision under Section 4(1)(d), especially if you are a "affected person"
- If the information sought is voluminous, it is better to ask it in the form of CD to save on cost.
- Remember that, you do not need to write the reason for asking the information.
- Mention the payment details like BC/DD/IPO number, issuing bank/post office, date, cash receipt details , etc., towards the end of your application
For more details about RTI please do visit :
Also read the content and success stories at :
http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/content/
Benefits under RTI Act 2005
RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT 2005 EMPOWERS EVERY CITIZEN TO :
1) Ask questions to the government or seek information
2) Take copies of government documents and inspect them
3) Take samples of materials of government work and inspect them
4) The Act provides for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.
12 comments:
The RTI stands for Right to Information. Right to Information is a part of fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) of the Constitution.
Article 19 (1) says that every citizen has freedom of speech and expression.
As early as in 1976, the Supreme Court said in the case of Raj Narain vs State of UP, that people cannot speak or express themselves unless they know.
Therefore, right to information is embedded in article 19.
In the same case, Supreme Court further said that India is a democracy. People are the masters. Therefore, the masters have a right to know how the governments, meant to serve them, are functioning. Further, every citizen pays taxes. Even a beggar on the street pays tax (in the form of sales tax, excise duty etc) when he buys a piece of soap from the market. The citizens, therefore, have a right to know how their money is being spent.
These three principles were laid down by the Supreme Court while saying that the RTI is a part of our fundamental rights.
Public Information Officer/Assistant Public Information Officer is in each department from which I need the information or is it an independent department meant only to receive RTI applications and provide the information?
Please detail the process of submission and where to submit. I want to file an RTI for getting information on how much expense has been done on Gurgaon Road and Infrastructure in the last one year. How much budget was allocated for that last year. What is the supposed road quality. Who all got the contract and on what criteria
PIO is an officer from the same department. He may be an assistant engineer, an account officer or any other officer. He performs his other duties alongwith providing information.
The application format is given in the article.
Talking about your issue of Gurgaon road, find the ward office under which that road comes. Write an RTI application addressing the PIO of that ward office.
Ask whatever question you want to ask. Ask questions to the point.
They will reply you within 30days.
Then you can go to that ward office and yourself investigate files and records of that road : how much is the expense, what quality cement used, who approed project, who is the contractor,etc.
you can obtain copies of the records in the file by paying the amount usually Rs.2 per page.
If you find anything wrong, you can expose the records via media or through some RTI activists or yourself.
Some success stories :
1) One of Parivartan (NGO) member was concerned about the pollution caused by Pune's PMPML buses. He was worried whether these buses have Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates.
He filed an RTI seeking information for the same.
He got the foll info :
PMPML working buses : 1216
PUC certified buses : 762
That means 454 buses did not have PUC certificates.
He filed a complaint against them from the information given by themselves asking why they have not issued certificates to other buses ?
The concerned officers were warned and he received a letter from them that action has been taken on his complaint.
This is how RTI works.
It is a vardaan for common man.
RTI came into existence only because of ANNA, Arvind Kejriwal, Aruna Roy,etc.
2) One more thing that Parivartan exposed through RTI was a multi utility kiosk project.
This project causes a loss of Rs.34 crore to Pune Municipal Corporation.
The detailed report is here :
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0ByAe-HNNnOM2MDhlNjkwYTQtMjI1YS00M2I3LWFlZGQtOGZiNzFmNjhjYTcy&authkey=CKnttdAO&hl=en_US
They obtained all the information from PMC itself by filing RTIs and after scrutinizing the documents, they filed a complaint against PMC itself. They are now in touch with PMC commissioner and continuously tracking the moves of the officers on this issue.
This is the power of RTI
3) Got road tax refund after filing three RTIs
- balajkri from Bangalore
I moved my two wheeler from Bangalore to Chennai one year back. After going through all the pains of getting NOC from Bangalore RTO and getting it reregistered in Chennai RTO, I applied for road tax refund to Bangalore RTO. Surprisingly, Bangalore RTO immediately sent a letter to Chennai RTO (copying me) asking for the confirmation of my vehicle re-reigistration details. After that, there was no action.
I waited for three/four months and then applied an RTI application to Bangalore RTO asking for the status of my refund. They replied back stating that the Chennai RTO has not given any reply for their letter. They also sent a second reminder letter to Chennai RTO marking as 'URGENT'.
Then I applied another RTI to Chennai RTO asking why they have not replied to Bangalore RTO regarding my vehicle re-registration details. After one month, they gave a reply that they have sent their reply to Bangalore RTO few days back.
I waited for another 2 months and again applied RTI to Bangalore RTO asking why they have not processed my refund even after getting reply from Chennai RTO. Then a clerk from Bangalore RTO called me and told me that he has not got any reply letter from Chennai RTO and he cannot process my refund until the Chennai RTO confirms the details of re-registration. He then sent an e-mail to Chennai RTO copying me and asked why they have not sent any reply.
Then, the Chennai RTO replied in the e-mail that they have already sent the re-registration details of my vehicle by post and they attached a scanned copy of the same letter.
Finally, after almost one year of struggle I got my refund back.
All this delay could have been avoided if the communication between the RTOs were made electronically (e-mail instead of registered posts). Finally, it was only the e-mail communication that made things move faster. The RTOs should make their e-mail IDs public (for these kind of refund issues) and all communications should be allowed through e-mail.
For me, the refund money is nothing, but the fact that I finally succeeded in getting the refund through repeated RTI attempts made myself happy and proud
4) Pune-based senior citizen Sharad Phadke’s fight has prompted a systemic change after his failed ATM transaction of Rs1,000 was debited from his account but not restored for 65 days by Bank of India (BoI), despite repeated reminders.
Mr Phadke put up his case on the rtiindia.org website and a former bank official and RTI activist, JP Shah, also invoked the RTI Act on this issue with other banks like IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda. Here is the link to the thread:
http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/48890-rti-help-atm-failed-transactions.html
After Mr Phadke’s story appeared on the Moneylife website on 4th May, managing editor Sucheta Dalal sent the article to the RBI, pointing to its contents as well as complaints of frequent breakdown in bank ATMs.
The RBI has now reduced the banks’ timeframe from 12 days to nine days for depositing back the failed transaction amount to the customer’s account. A couple of other banks have made the procedure automatic so that they do not have to be burdened by the penalty.
While Mr Phadke continues his mission to find out what other banks are doing to avoid customer inconvenience in this regard, it’s a great story about how an individual’s dogged fight can discipline large organisations like banks. Kudos to him!
5) RTI helped a widow get back Rs.5.29 lakhs from bank after 13 years
- By jps50
A widow and midday meal worker of Junagadh and her husband had invested in 4 term deposits with erstwhile State Bank of Saurashtra, [now merged with State Bank of India] Darbarbadh Branch, Bhavnagar Gujarat in 1996. In 1998 amount was defrauded when she and her husband were in Africa. Bank filed FIR and refused to pay back amount. This was totally against RBI directives on frauds, where in it is provided that customer should not suffer for fraud, if he is not a party to fraud. Her husband expired in 2003. Fraud was perpetrated due to negligence or connivance of officers of the bank.
She was introduced to me by my friend who works for consumer protection. Under my guidance she filed first RTI application on 26-03-2008. It took 26 letters, 9 RTI applications, 7 RTI first appeals, One second appeal and one complaint to Central Information Commission, New Delhi to get back this amount. All officers right from Branch Manager, Asstt. Gen Manager Bhavnagar, General Manager LHO Ahmedabad, Chief General Manager LHO, Ahmedabad, Bank Chairman at H.O. Mumbai, Directorate of Public Grievances Govt. of India, New Delhi, Governor RBI Mumbai, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Law & Justice were repeatedly hammered to get back this amount, without moving courts/consumer forums [as case was time barred]. It took me 1162 days to help her get back amount Rs.5.29 lakhs with interest for 13 years, after extensive follow up and RTI interventions.
I could dig out bank’s internal papers through RTI and could force country’s biggest and most adamant bank to repay the amount, based on their own papers and circulars. The lady had hardly any details of deposits, except name of bank branch and probable period of deposit. All other details were sucked through RTI.
RTI does work.
6) Gujarat: Policing PDS with right to information weapon
Read the complete article at :
http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/content/363-re-gujarat-policing-pds-right-information-weapon.html
hi i am from pune, i had land in yerwada area and sold to builder but builder aquired more than mentioned. how i file rti and can i get all the information about transaction of tittle.
Where to file RTI for seeking information from Aided Private School in pune Maharashtra
Where to file RTI for seeking information from Aided Private School in pune Maharashtra
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