THENI: It’s 5 am on Saturday and A Ramakrishnan is busy packing his bags. He has to travel for long hours to educate a new batch of enthusiasts about the Right To Information (RTI) Act. This routine on Saturdays, over the past 14 years, has taken him across the State.
The 50-year-old civil engineer from Theni was first acquainted with the potential of the RTI Act in 2008 while confronting a family dispute. “My mother and her three sisters were denied their ancestral properties. They are my grandfather’s children from his first marriage and do not have any legal documents to assert their rights. We applied for a legal heir certificate but the concerned tahsildar refused to provide the certificate and directed us to approach the court. Following this, I filed an RTI and its reply mentioned the tahsildar as the sole authority to issue a legal heir certificate as long as there was no objection from others. Along with the RTI reply, I approached the officer and he issued the certificate in no time,” says Ramakrishnan. In 2011, the family got Rs 2.5 lakh as property share and the activist terms this as his first success.
Later, he shared his legal triumph on Facebook, inspiring many to fight injustice. Hearing the success stories of many others who used the Act, he underwent training under retired tahsildar S Sivaraj from Vellore in 2011. Following Sivaraj’s advice, he started free RTI training classes for interested people, scattered across the State. Ramakrishnan travels to a different district each Saturday to enlighten people about the Act. He even visited the Anna Institute of Management, Chennai, three times to take classes. Many benefited from his training and were victorious over the knots in bureaucracy.
S Meera, a student of his class from Madurai, says, “Few years ago, I applied for a ‘patta transfer’ at the VAO office. Though I submitted all required documents, the officers delayed issuing the certificate for more than a year. Then, I started attending Ramakrishnan’s training session. He guided me to get a patta transfer document through the RTI. Initially, I did not receive any reply. But when I sent it to the appellate authority, I got the certificate within six months.”
But Ramakrishnan’s ventures are not confined to training sessions; he brings out injustice and corruption in government institutions through this Act. In 2013, he discovered that some officers in the treasury were booked under section 17B of the TN Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act. But the department took no further action against them. Ramakrishnan filed an RTI to the concerned Principal Secretary demanding reasons for the delay in departmental action, which resulted in the suspension of few officers.
In another incident, he got information that 13 engineers of Madurai Corporation were being promoted without proper documents. He filed an RTI and got all 13 demoted. Similarly, in 2017, he unearthed information that the State government was spending a little over Rs 14 crore on MLA pension each month.
So far, this activist has filed over 200 RTIs and considering his contributions to the progressive implementation of the provision of the RTI, the TN Information Commission honoured Ramakrishnan twice – in 2018 and 2022.
His job is not without its dangers. “I often face threats from government officers and other individuals. But that doesn’t bother me. Currently, my endeavour us to help people lingering in the Collectorate and other offices waiting to resolve their land issues. I work to make sure elected representatives follow transparent procedures,” he signs off.