The Right Act

His work is not limited to wards 77 and 78 in which Kidderpore,Iqbalpore and Mominpur fall where he has formed an organisation called Hasiya (meaning living on the edge) along with like-minded locals from the minority community but Ahmed travels far and wide to spread awareness about the Right to Information Act. And where ever he goes,he has managed to generate a new wave of enthusiasm in the youth for exercising their right to information.

“Information is empowerment and right to information is the best tool for citizens to avail this information. There are hundreds of schemes and initiatives floated by the government which do not reach the people. This act enables people to find out more about these schemes. A person can find out,for example,how the government is using public money,” says Iftikar. His email ID,iftikarahamed@gmail.com,is flooded with queries on how people can stock take on government expenditure. He gets invites from a number of groups to explain about RTI and discuss how the RTI movement is taking shape in the state.

A political science graduate from Maulana Azad College,Iftikar is at present doing his masters in social work. He has also been endowed with the prestigious Latto fellowship,given by some voluntary organisation for bringing about social change.

When the RTI campaign started in Kolkata in 2005,he was one of the first to attend the camps and gather information about filing RTIs. Now in 2009 he is attending the National Consultation on RTI in Delhi and giving presentations about the status of RTI activism in West Bengal.

Iftikar has filed hundreds of RTIs seeking information about various plans of the government. He has helped others learn how to exercise their right to information. He has travelled extensively throughout the state,be it to the Sunderbans or Bolpur,to inform the youth about this act and help the marginalised exercise their right to information. Expectedly,he has interesting stories to tell about the act and its exercise.

Sometime ago he had applied for a passport. But despite going from pillar to post,he was unable to get one. He filed an RTI with the Kolkata Police asking what was wrong in the police verification and why he was being denied his passport.

The senior officials of Kolkata Police asked him to withdraw the RTI but he refused. He then got his passport in just seven days.

But Iftikar did not stop there. He has filed a number of petitions in the minorities department or the education department.

His quest to find the truth does not end only with the filing of RTIs and helping people exercise their right though. He takes up cases to see that the RTIs which are misleading and the queries which remain unanswered are taken to the next level —- that of the information commission.

According to Iftikar he was interested in political and social issues since his childhood.

What moved Iftikar the most was that the minority community in the state had been lagging behind because of lack of information and education. Thus began his involvement in politics and social work. Through RTIs he was able to access the information that would have been buried in government files under the guise of confidentiality.

According to Iftikar,youths from remote corners of the state are now keen on using this new tool of social justice,a clear indication of the difference he has made.