The Use of the Right to Information Act (RTI)

The children of our village bal panchayat participated in a workshop on the Right to Information Act sponsored by the Mountain Children’s Foundation and Asha SV. In this workshop, we discussed our village’s problems and how the RTI could be used to solve those problems.

For two months, the lights in our village were very dim due to the extremely low voltage electricity. The children of our village decided to ask the electricity department about this so we wrote an RTI request. Our application had a great impact on the officers in the electricity department and they immediately improved the voltage to our village. In this way, our village’s electricity problem was solved. And respect for our bal panchayat among the villagers greatly increased.

Our village also has a severe water problem. We have submitted an RTI request for this as well and are hoping to hear back soon. I want to ask all my PABAM colleagues to make better use of the RTI so that you can all be part of the development of your village.

Vimla Baseda, Class 12
Rani Laxmi Bai Bal Panchayat
Askote, Pithoragarh

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