Radio to answer RTI queries
Delhi based NGO Kabir has launched an hour-long weekly programme on the Right to Information Act. Aired every Sunday, the show answers calls from listeners across India on queries pertaining to the use of this tool to access information from the government.
New Delhi, India: If you thought Bollywood hits and chartbusters were the only reasons to tune into your FM radio, you are wrong.
For now, FM-Rainbow (102.6 MHz) offers one more reason to log on to it—a weekly programme to answer your queries on the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The hour-long weekly show has been started by a non-governmental organisation, Kabir. The NGO has been working on the issue of RTI for several years.
The programme is aired every Sunday at five in the evening. The first episode was broadcast on January 4 this year. Asked what prompted it to start such a programme, Neeraj Kumar of Kabir said the idea struck them when a radio producer approached them for making one-minute advertisements on RTI.
"A few months ago, a radio producer approached us. He wanted us to make one-minute advertisements on RTI for radio channels. It was then that this idea struck us," Kumar said.
"We already had our RTI campaign running on television channels and newspapers. We have also made several small films on RTI. So we thought we could also have a radio programme to make people aware of the issue," he added.
The NGO had first bought the slots for three months and is now planning to buy slots for the rest of 2009.
Besides Delhi, the programme is being relayed by several AIR stations in Kochi, Jammu, Aligarh, Kanpur, Kasauli, Mussorie, Kurseong and Shillong, Kumar informed.
"We have received a great response till now and received hundreds of calls. After every programme, we at Kabir receive at least 30-40 calls. The maximum number of calls we got was from people in the age group of 20-30 years," Kumar said.
"Some of the callers have general queries about the act and its usefulness. There are some who need to be slightly encouraged for filling an RTI application and want basic information about fees."
Some have very specific queries and want help regarding hurdles they are facing in getting information from government departments.
"We are getting calls from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
The encouraging part is that the calls are also from remote areas of these states. "We have queries from villages, where we were not able to reach earlier," he added.
Two RTI activists, Manish Sisodia and Priyanka Tyagi, who work with Kabir, host the show.
