3 RTI Success Stories of Common People in Rajasthan

Three examples  of Rajasthan  where RTI was used to access entitlements by ordinary citizens

1. RTI in Social Security Pension

In June 2016, out of 68,45,252 Social Security Pensions sanctioned in Rajasthan, 7,60,426 pension accounts were cancelled by the State Government. This information was not made public by the Government. The Right to Information Act was used to procure the list of pension applications cancelled and the reasons for their cancellation. A range of reasons were revealed as having been recorded to justify cancellation - such as “Death”, “Duplicate”, “Incorrect application”, “Ineligible” and “Other reasons”. It was revealed that nearly 2,95,000 pensions were stopped mentioning the reason as "Death". In June 2016, a survey conducted in Kushalpura Gram Panchayat, Bhim Block, Rajsamand District revealed that out of 44 pensioners declared "dead" in government records, 21 were alive and weren't getting social security pensions. Similarly, in Bhim Block out of almost 3000 cancelled pensions, nearly 1300 were found to be unjustifiably cancelled and then subsequently restored. Many of these families were only dependent on Social Security Pensions for their survival. After this a reverification exercise was conducted across the state and many such pensions restarted. This shows how information is vital and relates to life and death of many people.

2. RTI in School Education

Appointment of only three teachers to teach nearly 700 girls, led to a strike by girl students of a Government Higher Secondary Girls School in Bhim, Rajsamand. Subsequently, an RTI application was filed about teacher vacancies in the State of Rajasthan which revealed that there existed 30-50% vacancies across different categories. This led the Soochana Evam Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan (SR Abhiyan) to file RTI applications across 5000 Government Schools in different districts of Rajasthan. This campaign for information in education known as “Shiksha Ka Sawaal” led to widespread reform, including the appointment of teachers. In the Government School where the strike took place for instance, the RTI campaign led to teacher appointments going up from 3 to 15.

3. RTI in Ration

Despite the introduction of Aadhar and mandatory biometric authentication it was found that large numbers of people in Jaipur were being denied their rations as was mandated in the Law. By accessing information made available by the Government of Rajasthan as per the provisions of mandatory disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act, and its verification with actual beneficiaries and residents revealed huge discrepancies in rates charged and quantum of foodgrains distributed. Confronted with this information by the beneficiaries in January 2017, a Ration Shop dealer in Khatipura Kumawat Colony of Jaipur City immediately returned nearly 5,000 kgs of pilfered amounts of foodgrains to the beneficiaries. Similarly in 2017, in Katar Gram Panchayat of Rajasthan, information distributed amongst beneficiaries led them to confront their Ration Shop dealer which resulted in more than 50,000kgs of foodgrains being brought to the village to distribute as per pilfered amounts over a year. In all such cases, rations had been shown as having been distributed through Aadhar based Biometric Authentication (ABBA).

Circulated  by Nikhil, RTI Activist and National Convener, NCPRI