1] A sum of Rs.3.59 crores refunded by Pune Municipal Corporation for wrongly taxing large number of punekars. RTI did it.
2] Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation waived house tax of Rs.2.50 lacs within 2 days of filing RTI application by an assessee.
3] Gujarat IAS and IPS officers will now be able to access their annual confidential reports as directed under RTI.
4] DoPT, Govt. of India, Delhi have amended rules for disclosing annual confidential reports to IAS, IPS, IFS officers, based on judgement of Gujarat Information Commission.
5] Income tax refund orders (pending for years) delivered to assessees on filing RTI applications.
6] Years old bills for more than Rs.50.00 lacs paid by central govt. organization within few months, when a supplier filed RTI application for it.
7] PIO of Supreme Court, MLA, Joint secretary, SP, DSP, Dy. Collectors, university registrar, executive engineer, PIO of Sachivalaya etc fined/pulled up under RTI Act.
8] RBI ordered to disclose audit reports of a coop bank.
9] High Court Judge uses RTI and gets promotion.
10] IFS officer uses RTI for her claim for promotion as Foreign Secretary of India.
11] Villagers are asking under RTI proof of end-use of funds on the ground, allotted to their villages under various schemes of govts. Ordinary citizens have even questioned President, Prime Minister, and Supreme Court on various issues of public interest, through simple application under RTI and have received replies.
12] Frauds/scams of Crores of rupees have been unearthed through use of RTI by ordinary citizens. Recently, data obtained under RTI has inspired citizens to question individual elected representatives to stop a scam worth over Rs 6,000 crore in the Crawford Market development issue in Mumbai
13] One Information Commissioner of Central Information Commission, New Delhi himself filed RTI application for his problem.
14] There are large number of pan India success stories, where ordinary citizens or their groups have forced govt. depts. /local bodies to fulfill obligations and duties towards citizens through use of RTI.
15] 65 year old man refused to bribe Rs.1.00 lac, but got work done through RTI in Mumbai with Rs.10/-!. After a long wait and harassment, a 90 year old lady in Delhi easily got passport by resorting to RTI.
16] A 17 year girl from Bengaluru through RTI forced IIM to make public their admission process, which was secretly guarded. It is now on website of IIMs.
17] Misuse of lacs of rupees of Chief Minister’s Relief Fund was unearthed by one man in Mumbai through RTI.
18]. Misuse of public money by politicians and govt employees is being exposed repeatedly in various states through RTI. A blind man exposed embezzlement of lacs of rupees by govt employees which were meant for his village near Rajkot Gujarat.
19]. Ambanis, TATAs [for Singur] have also used RTI. Richest to the poorest have used RTI to their benefit.
20] Experience shows that Govt. officers soften, moment they know that you know about RTI Act, as you may legally ask questions that may be embarrassing to them and their department/office.
21] Govt. employees and officers are now hesitant to do wrong things or misuse their authority, lest the mess may come to light at a later date, just by an application of any ordinary citizen under RTI. On an average 4000 applications are being filed per day in the country under RTI.
Different requestors get different response, but do not get discouraged and keep on pushing. If necessary, consult RTI activists/ RTI NGOs free of charge by visiting websites. Govt. officers are slowly but surely coping with new era of open and transparent governance, befitting a democracy, where ordinary citizen is the ultimate owner of all govt. information. Sixty year old habits and mind frame will take some time, training and public punch, to change in line with this most progressive and empowering piece of legislation enacted after independence.
VIGILANT CITIZENS = VIBRANT DEMOCRACY
=CITIZEN RULE=WELFARE SOCIETY
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