Inviting contributions for AWAZ Times 2012

AWAZ, a youth collective working for greater transparency and efficiency in public life through the medium of the Right to Information Act, 2005, invites contributions for its annual journal, AWAZ Times. Contributions may be

·      on any aspect of public life or any matter and/or issue pertinent to public ethics and well being

·      in either Hindi or English

·      poems or prose pieces

·      not be more than 1,500 words if prose pieces

·      in the form of black and white illustrations and/or cartoons

and must be mailed to awaz.du@gmail.com by the 25^th of February, 2012. For queries and more details, mail to above or contact at 9999105003.

How to access your answer sheets through RTI: A sample

Resolution: Fixing Date, Time and Venue of AWAZ Meetings

Protest Dharna regarding RTE

REALISING THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Article 21-A of the Constitution ordains the state to provide free and compulsory elementary education. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 is a step ahead in this direction.

The right guaranteed in the Act specifying amenities, teacher-pupil ratio and other qualitative provisions, is not a mere empty right to enrolment, but a substantive entitlement to meaningful, quality education.

Yet, government expenditure on education in our country is a pittance and the state of elementary education is in a mess, defeating the essence of this right. Further, the government’s discriminatory policy of huge disparities between governmental spending on central schools and other schools is violative of the Right to Equality.

Private schools on the other hand enjoy a free hand in extorting money from parents of school-children in most of the states.

All India Parents Association (AIPA) in association with Social Jurist, a civil rights Group led by legal activist Adv. Ashok Agarwal, has given a call to hold a PROTEST DHARNA on Sunday, 9^th October, 2011 from 10 AM to 1 PM at RAJGHAT, NEW DELHI demanding:

(i)Upgradation of all government schools all over the country to the level of Central Schools;

(ii)Enactment of central law to regulate fees in unaided private schools.

We appeal to the conscience of everyone for participating in this protest and assuming an active role in the crucial, historic and morally compelling struggle for RIGHT TO EDUCATION.
  

Mr. Ashok Agarwal: juristashok@gmail.com; Nisha: nisha31389@gmail.com

Answer scripts accessible through RTI

The horizons and meanings of transparency in the system are widening. In the much awaited and land-mark judgement of Central Board of Secondary Education & anr v Aditya Bandhopadhyay & ors dated August 9, 2011, the Supreme Court of India has upheld the Calcutta High Court verdict and ruled that evaluated answer-scripts are covered under ‘information’ under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act and not exempted under Section 8(1)(e) of the Act. The result is that you can now inspect your evaluated answer-scripts and/or seek a certified copy of the same by filing an RTI application. But remember, accessing another candidate/examinee’s answers-script by an RTI applicant would be subject to the concerned candidate/examinee’s consent, by operation of Section 11 of the RTI Act. So go ahead and make use of this valuable right!!

University of Delhi students can address their RTI applications concerning DU to the PIO, University of Delhi, New Administrative Building, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007. Applications may either be sent by speed-post along with an Indian Postal Order (available at all post-offices) of Rs.10 value enclosed therewith; or hand-delivered at the New Administrative Building near Dean Student Welfare’s office, along with the RTI fee of Rs.10. The RTI application should contain “application under RTI Act 2005” as Subject, the information sought along with the necessary particulars such as name of the examinee, exam roll number etc in case of accessing answer-script and should be signed by the applicant. The application may be printed/typed or hand-written in Hindi or English.  You need not file separate RTIs for separate papers; you can easily seek more than one answer-scripts through a single RTI. A printing cost of Rs.2 per page would be chargeable for each page in excess of five.

REMEMBER TO FILE YOUR RTI TO ACCESS ANSWER-SCRIPTS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, AS THE UNIVERSITY AS PER RULES DESTROYS THE RECORDS/ANSWER-SCRIPTS AFTER A CERTAIN TIME.