“My friends would not believe me at first. Even now there is this boy who says I get my relatives to take my pictures and the press cuttings I show around are actually my father’s doing on a computer. Some friends now ask me to suggest topics on which they too can file RTIs,” she laughs. But some children in her immediate circle have seen how potent a tool RTI can be and that if somebody like Aishwarya could use it and become famous for it, why cannot they do it too?
One among them is Priyanshi Yadav, a 13-year-old whose family is friends with the Sharmas. Priyanshi, who is still mulling whether she would like to be a model, an engineer or delve into multimedia as a grown-up, has dashed off a letter to the city’s Municipal Commissioner asking for the 20 by 120 feet lane in front of her home to be turned into a concrete road as soon as possible. “I got courage from Aishwarya’s feat but have experienced myself the difficulties of walking on the uneven surface. So many children have skinned their knees or fallen off their bicycles in this lane. If we have a RCC road, even my home will look pretty”, she says.
Priyanshi's letter, written on a page torn out of an exercise book, is dated April 5 and does not forget to mention that a BSP legislator lives along the lane as well.
Also counted among UP's growing list of children who are wielding the RTI tool is Tanya Thakur (15) daughter of Amitabh Thakur an IPS officer who first used the RTI in 2007 to get his Annual Confidential Reports that were being denied to him and Nutan Thakur who is an RTI activist and the editor of a newsletter. Tanya's application though is a little different and flows out of a national forum that was convened at a recent RTI seminar in Lucknow. “The forum”, explains Nutan, “allows people anonymity while asking for information as it offers an individual the option of not seeking potentially sensitive information in his own name. That information might be asked for by a forum member living in a different state. This is especially useful for villages where asking questions invariably leads to physical confrontations.”
Thus Tanya’s application has been made to the Maharashtra telecom office asking for information on the payments that ahve been released to various civil contractors against dead agreements by an executive engineer in Solapur. Her 12-year-old brother, Aditya, penned a poem, for the RTI seminar, that had the following to say of the government: “the solid machine has turned to glass, now that we have the power.”
As for Aishwarya, there is already another RTI idea that is swimming in her head. “I want to know why the sale of cut fruits and fruit juices in the open does not end. It is a potential health hazard,” she says. Why an obsession with health-related queries you might wonder. Well that is explained by the fact that Aishwarya’s ambition is to become a doctor when she grows up.
One among them is Priyanshi Yadav, a 13-year-old whose family is friends with the Sharmas. Priyanshi, who is still mulling whether she would like to be a model, an engineer or delve into multimedia as a grown-up, has dashed off a letter to the city’s Municipal Commissioner asking for the 20 by 120 feet lane in front of her home to be turned into a concrete road as soon as possible. “I got courage from Aishwarya’s feat but have experienced myself the difficulties of walking on the uneven surface. So many children have skinned their knees or fallen off their bicycles in this lane. If we have a RCC road, even my home will look pretty”, she says.
Priyanshi's letter, written on a page torn out of an exercise book, is dated April 5 and does not forget to mention that a BSP legislator lives along the lane as well.
Also counted among UP's growing list of children who are wielding the RTI tool is Tanya Thakur (15) daughter of Amitabh Thakur an IPS officer who first used the RTI in 2007 to get his Annual Confidential Reports that were being denied to him and Nutan Thakur who is an RTI activist and the editor of a newsletter. Tanya's application though is a little different and flows out of a national forum that was convened at a recent RTI seminar in Lucknow. “The forum”, explains Nutan, “allows people anonymity while asking for information as it offers an individual the option of not seeking potentially sensitive information in his own name. That information might be asked for by a forum member living in a different state. This is especially useful for villages where asking questions invariably leads to physical confrontations.”
Thus Tanya’s application has been made to the Maharashtra telecom office asking for information on the payments that ahve been released to various civil contractors against dead agreements by an executive engineer in Solapur. Her 12-year-old brother, Aditya, penned a poem, for the RTI seminar, that had the following to say of the government: “the solid machine has turned to glass, now that we have the power.”
As for Aishwarya, there is already another RTI idea that is swimming in her head. “I want to know why the sale of cut fruits and fruit juices in the open does not end. It is a potential health hazard,” she says. Why an obsession with health-related queries you might wonder. Well that is explained by the fact that Aishwarya’s ambition is to become a doctor when she grows up.
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