Pahal, the grassroots intervention of TII, was launched in May, 2009 in Chhattisgarh and in Oct, 2009 in Jharkhand and Orissa. There were many encouraging instances, where people in the poorest and remotest villages used tools like RTI and social audits to access their rights and entitlements and nudged and exposed corrupt departments. We are sharing some of the heartening successes in these states. We hope to share more such stories, as we started TII's campaign in Bihar from Feb, 2011.
Government Officials complete assignments after RTI queries: In Chhingpal Gram Panchayat of Jagdalpur block in Bastar district, the village hand pump needed repair and was not working for six months. The complaints did not result in any action by the usually laid back PHED department. As soon as an RTI application was filed by a young village volunteer Shri Iravati Baghel, who had attended a TII governance training programme a month back in April, 09, the technician came with his machines and set the pump right within a week. He shared his mobile number and assured the villagers that there is no need to complain to the department in future and he will voluntarily come for repairs, if villagers called him in need. In the same village, the payments under the old age pension of about 15 elderly persons were pending for the last six months that were regularized after filing an RTI application.
Mid Day Meal Scheme: In one such effort, the TII Jharkhand team surveying 15 government schools in Chouparan block of Hazaribagh found that 13 schools were not serving meals under the MDMS for the last fortnight. Taking note of these findings highlighted in the media, the Home Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram visiting Ranchi on 23rd of Oct, 09 sought a report from the State HR Dept about functioning of MDMS. As a result, the government machinery is now considering for its effective monitoring.
NREG Scheme: Similarly, NREG Scheme work sites were opened in 7 locations of Jharkhand in Pahal areas after the TII team filed applications on behalf of 469 job card holders. In the rest of Jharkhand, NREGS implementation is suspended using the excuse of ongoing Jharkhand assembly elections.
Public Distribution System: In villages of Khurda, the Fair Price Shops (FPSs) used to sell the supplies worth at least Rs.50,000/month in the black market meant for the BPL families, according to a TII survey estimate. It is the poor families who either starve or pay this amount from their pockets later, when they buy these commodities from open market to meet minimum food requirement. Due to filing of RTI applications on distribution of entitlements under PDS and the mass pressure built on FPSs dealers by TII volunteers and villagers, they have started distributing the full quantities of essential commodities.
Angul Farmers Say No to Bribe: Filing of more than 40 RTI applications on various issues by Pahal Angul team has resulted in RTI revolution and mass support for demanding transparency and accountability from local government departments. In an important success, an RTI query on Orissa vermiculture subsidy scheme resulted in returning of money taken as bribe. From the answer provided, it came out that there is no extra fee for sanctioning the subsidy of Rs.8,000 under the scheme, while officials took Rs.1000 as ‘processing charges’(!). Armed with this information, about 20 farmers who paid Rs.1000, took hold of the concerned officials and got the money returned immediately.
