Saturday, January 26, 2008

RTI Project Updates - 8

Helplines
This week we were able to spread the word about the helplines better. There was a mention about the helplines in Radio Mirchi, thanks to an interview with Lokesh, through which there were five callers on a single day. There was a small goof up here. Radio Mirchi did not announce that people have to call between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, and hence people kept calling at all the times :-). There was box item in a magazine called "Puthiya Parvai" (Scan below). Hence there were about 10 phone calls on the helpline this week.



Awareness sessions
The awareness sessions scheduled for this week were postponed. But I have fixed two awareness sessions this week in 2 villages. One will happen on feb 5th in Sivagangai district in Thiruppachetti village. The other one is in Banavaram in Vellore district, though the date is not fixed. Yesterday I was called for a discussion by CSIM (Centre of Social Initiative and Management) who run courses on Social entrepreneurship. There will be an awareness session on Monday in Taramani (the one that was scheduled for last week).

Other material
The RTI publicity cards (in the size of visiting cards) were printed and are ready now. Will distribute them to as many people as possible. A banner has been readied for use in awareness sessions. I am also preparing a brief write up on RTI which I intend to distribute when I do awareness sessions among people who can read and write. This will contain four sides, two of which will contain key points of the act. One side will contain a flowchart which will explain the procedure of filing and appeal processes, and the final side will contain a sample application.

Commission
This week I went to the commission twice. Once Mr.Dhandapani was on leave, and the second time I went to meet him, he said he wanted 2 or 3 more days, to give me the copies since he had to discuss the thing with the commissioners. I pointed out that the commissioner has already said ok, but in reoply to that, he talked of some other issues like how some PIOs have replied to their orders and how they intend to act on it. He was not logical at all, but I decided to wait. He asked me to come back on Friday. Next week, if I dont get the copies I will talk to the commissioner and complain to him about the Registrar.

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