Taking RTI on the road

Gurgaon: Individuals have been using the Right To Information act (RTI) for the greater good.

S P Nagrath, a retired schoolteacher recently discovered the Right to Information Act. Not only has he become the driving force behind the appropriate use of parent teacher association money in schools, he has also made sure, through the RTI, that the road at the old Gurgaon railway station is 32 feet wide, and not the 18 feet that the bureaucracy provisioned for. The road has also got a divider now, a dream for commuters.

 "People often come and ask for help in drafting their RTI petitions. I help those people," he says.

While earlier the officials did not pay any attention, they were forced to widen the road after the RTI Act was enforced..

Nagrath says, "Officers are reluctant to reply to the petitions. They come home and protest. The most recent was the case of the road. I told them there shouldn't be any problem. They asked me not to go to Chandigarh to pursue it further, but I still went".

A confident Nagrath cannot be stopped now.