Exercise Your Right to Information, It Works, But How!
Filed Under (Motley) by Rajesh Kumar on 10-06-2010
Tagged Under : RTI
I had heard of Right to Information Act as a powerful tool so when a premier academic institution delayed issuing the certificates to the course participants, I filed a query using RTI. My query was as follows:
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, in association with NIIT Imperia conducted a certificate programme called Executive Programme in Supply Chain Management (or EPSCM). The first batch of the programme completed its requirements in January 2010.The institute has chosen not to inform the participants of the programme about the status of the certificates. The undersigned is one of the participants of the programme.
Please provide :
· the status of the certificates of the of EPSCM batch that finished the exams in Jan 2010
· the reasons of the extraordinary and ongoing delay
· The reasons for non-communication by the institute regarding the reasons for the delay to the participants.
Sure enough, I received the response soon enough. Reproduced below for your reading pleasure.
Look at the way the non-specific response has been craftily drafted, which defeats the purpose of seeking information.
Let’s examine:
Q 1: Please provide the status of the certificates of the of EPSCM batch that finished the exams in Jan 2010.
Ans 1: Certificates have been either dispatched or are being dispatched (Oh God, why did they invent present continuous usage in English language at all?!) depending on(variable – it depends, you see) the status of the students(rich, poor, what?).
Q 2: Please provide the reasons of the extraordinary and ongoing delay.
Ans 2: The delay is routine (A 4 month delay is just ‘routine’, you see. Reminds me of passenger train somehow). There is no extraordinary or ongoing delay (Really? The Chandrayaan took only few days to reach the moon) in cases where students have followed the proper procedure(conditional if, and what is an ‘improper’ procedure, pray? Isn’t a procedure a procedure?).
Q 3: Please provide the reasons for non-communication by the institute regarding the reasons for the delay to the participants.
Ans 3: The service provider (NIIT Imperia) (Blame it on them) had been informed regarding the reasons for the delay(Finally, they accept, there was delay, but then, what if it did not reach us).
PS: Curiously enough, between the filing of this RTI query and the response, I received the certificate!
If you would like to access some quality discussions and resources on how citizens can use Right to Information Act to your situation, please check out RTI India portal.
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I think you should be happy ki aapka kaam to ho gaya!
Hi Rajesh,
Though RTI is a great tool but as always needs framing of one’s queries in the right perspective. I don’t know whether it made our life more easy but at least it empowered the cattle class (like me) to question those in the higher echoleons. As indicated by yourself, they may hide behind the present continuous for a time but the ethernal truth to answer the query can’t at least be shaken off for ever. For me the How and What takes a back seat in front of Why they do it so. The poor guys too need some time for the transformation…AMEN!
So did you spend Rs 80 on Rs 10 DD and another 10-20rs on postage?
@ Shrinidhi: I actually learnt that my Payroll account entitles me to get DDs made without any commission. Yes, postal charges were incurred.
Have you got the certificate “EPSCM- IIMC”
@Sandesh Yes, we have.
[...] no wiser on the status! And it is quite possible that you may see no action for several quarters. Having used provisions of Right to Information Act 2005 against IIM Calcutta earlier and seen the speed it magically brings to stalled processes, I recently user the Right to [...]