Led by slain Jethava’s father,RTI centres keep up the crusade

Jethava,who gathered information through RTI queries and filed a PIL claiming involvement of BJP MP from Junagadh,Dinesh Solanki,and his men in illegal mining in Gir Wildlife Sanctuary periphery,was killed outside the Gujarat High Court on July 20,2010. Solanki’s nephew Pratap is an accused in the Jethava murder case.

A year after his murder,his RTI group has been spreading wings from his home turf of Khambha to small villages.

In the last three months,five RTI centres have been started at Datania (Khambha taluka),Samdhiyala(Una taluka in Junagadh district),Jaffrabad (Amreli),Chalala (Amreli) and Jamnagar. Led by Bhikha Jethava,Amit’s father,these centres have been set up and are run by volunteers of RTI Mandal. It was in 2005 that Amit had set up first such centre in Khambha.

“To run each of these centres,we find a local person who is a bit educated and interested in work,” says Jethava senior.

“Like in Khambha,these new centre hold a meeting every Sunday where people are invited to discuss issues that need attention. On weekdays,we help villagers who want to file RTI applications for their personal issues,” says Kantibhai Mistry,who opened a centre at Datania village three months ago.

Like Kantibhai,most of the volunteers are small farmers. “On day-to-day basis,we face so many administrative roadblocks. With help of the RTI Act,we have been trying to get our rights,” Kantibhai adds.

Little wonder that the issue of recently built but now damaged roads in Datania village is now in the RTI commission’s hearing list. So is alleged corruption in irrigation scheme in various villages in Khambha.

However,these centres are flooded with more personal queries than general. “Problem with rural folks is that either they do not know how to file an application or they are not confident. Our work is very simple. We just help them filing an application and guide them till they do not get desired information,says Jethava senior.

In rural areas,most of the applications are related to few specific departments like Anganwadi,Indira Awas Yojna,Ambedkar Awas Yojana,Marketing Yard,Revenue and Irrigation departments.