Speaking at a workshop on Right to Information Act, organised by Moneylife Foundation, Mr Ravat said more use and involvement of citizens with the RTI movement would pressurise authorities to disclose information voluntarily.

“More citizens should get involved with the Right to Information (RTI) movement, and the goal must be to pressurise the authorities to disclose information voluntarily”, said Ashok Ravat, social activist and honorary secretary of All-India Bank Depositors Association (Mumbai).

Speaking at a workshop on Right to Information Act, organised by Moneylife Foundation, Mr Ravat shared his experiences with the RTI Act, which he has used during his fight for customer protection, environment and civic issues. He discussed how to formulate specific queries and on the correct format for application. These formats can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Application-Formats.
“RTI Act and grievance redressal go hand in hand. So all activists should be aware of redressal mechanisms, so they can force authorities to rectify these irregularities”, he said.
 
The RTI Act, with certain exceptions, can be used to get information about decisions taken by public authorities, details of public expenditure, status of projects and many other administrative issues. An effective tool to prevent corruption, it is essential that citizens use this act regularly to keep a check on public authorities.
 
Mr Ravat advised RTI Act users to keep their queries crisp, specific, and limited to one particular aspect, which falls under the domain of that particular public information officer (PIO). “If you ask questions which falls under more than one information officer, things will get complicated and the information may be delayed”, he said.

Asking the activists to use the RTI responsibly Mr Ravat said they (RTI activists) need to understand that seeking information is not equivalent to complaining. “Some people keep on posting irrelevant and endless queries, which is unacceptable. We must understand that a government officer’s time is valuable and he should rather devote it to his duty than for somebody’s amusement”, Mr Ravat said. He also reiterated that not everything requires exercising the RTI. Much information is available free for the public with government authorities.

He also talked about the processes of filing appeals and complaints with higher authorities in case the information got is unsatisfactory. “And remember, always reserve your right to check the relevant documents in your RTI query”, he said.

Prominent RTI activist Krishnaraja Rao provided links to articles related to the Act, which will help a citizen understand the Act better and file their queries. Bilingual versions of the RTI Act can be found at http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Act-Eng-Hindi  (English-Hindi) and http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Act-Eng-Marathi (English-Marathi). An abridged and simplified version is available at http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Act-Simplified . One can get the annotated version, with interpretation of the sections of the Act is found at http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Act-with-notes, and key High Court judgments on various related cases can be found at http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Case-Law-Digest. Petitioners can benefit from the tips provided at http://tinyurl.com/RTI-Tips-n-Tricks, and public information officers, too, can learn about the Act and their duties from http://tinyurl.com/RTI-PIOs-Guide .