All of us dream of a truly glorious India. But, are dreams enough? Why is the reality different?
Corruption is not the only culprit, but clearly one of the most important. Corruption in government affects everyone. It makes us sick, sucks up our energy, our initiative. It does this everyday. The poor and powerless are worst hit. Shall we be content with just complaining about it and be resigned to spending our whole lives working around it? Is it purely a question of morality? Why do both perpetrators and victims feel trapped? What can we do? What power can ordinary citizens wield?
Obscurity and the lack of information is the backbone of this corruption in government. Obscurity in the matter of responsibilities, of funds, of beneficiaries. In this situation, the Right to Information has tremendous potential. It is an instrument that allows citizens to hold government representatives to account and prevent both laxity and corruption. RTI was achieved through a tremendous campaign. However, as can be expected, most government departments have been very lax about conforming to the requirements of RTI, for the combined reasons of inertia and vested interest in maintaining status quo. Clearly, achieving RTI was not enough. It will take a sustained campaign of (a) vigilance and petitioning to coax and/or force all departments to conform to their duties with respect to RTI and (b) spreading awareness among citizens about the tremendous gains to be had from actually exercising their RTI.
Loksatta Sanjeevani was born to wage such a campaign. Our aim is to make government efficient, transparent and effective. RTI is our weapon. Our activists burn with the zeal for putting this weapon in the hands of all citizens. Our vision is that using RTI will become as commonplace and widespread as posting a letter or sending email. We are going from strength to strength with massive and impactful campaigns, meticulous planning and execution and, extensive documentation - all of them designed to go viral.
Activities
Our primary activities are as follows:
- provide information about the procedures and forms for utilizing RTI.
- identify corruption in key areas such as public amenities.
- file a number of RTI applications and provide continuous updates on the status and response of the concerned departments and officials.
- conduct awareness sessions for students in colleges.
- highlight the far reaching implications and benefits of RTI and how most departments and officials are subverting the same, secure in the lack of awareness among citizens.
We have four teams and several of our members work across teams.
1. Field work: organizing and conducting events.
2. Technical: expertise in technical matters, research and knowledge base.
3. Literature: blog posts, reports, documentation, research, website, publicity.
4. Design: templates for informational and promotional documents and slides.
Contact
If you would like to participate in/contribute to any of the activities, do contact us. We will be more than happy to work with you.
Email : Abdul Azeez Shaik (abdulazeez1984@gmail.com) ,Manasa Chamarthi (manasa.chamarthi@gmail.com) or Sundeep Pattem (pattem@gmail.com)
Join our Google Group @loksattasanjeevani@googlegroups.com
Tweet us @lspsanjeevani
