11 October,2009 07:09 AM IST | | Julio Riberio
PCGT can help with the aid of college students
The Public Concern for Governance Trust has been spreading knowledge about the Right to Information Act among college students and slum dwellers in the city of Mumbai. These two segments have been chosen with a purpose. Besides inculcating right values among youth, the PCGT enlists enthusiastic college students to man the clinics which it holds in different parts of the city. The poor residing in the slums do not know about the Right to Information Act and how it can help them to secure their rights. At present, they are the biggest victims of corruption. Even if they want a ration card, they have to pay. The Right to Information can address this problem if the victims become aware of the existence of this Act and are helped to fill in the required applications.
The PCGT has conducted few workshops in the slum areas of the city in collaboration with the Mohalla Committee Movement Trust. It intends to cement this relationship to spread knowledge of the Right to Information Act and how it can be used to fight petty corruption. Applications have to be dispatched to the PIOs in the concerned departments. PCGT can help with the aid of volunteers from among college students, who are motivated and trained.The Government Law College was our first port of call. Law students are best suited to provide volunteers for applying a law that is tailored to fight corruption. We have some good volunteers from this college and we hope to motivate students from other Law Colleges also.
The Indian Merchants' Chamber has an Anti-Corruption Cell that could be interested in this work. Since the Government Law College adjoins the Indian Merchant's Chamber, students from the college can easily hold clinics once a month to begin with and oftener if required at the Chamber's premises.u00a0 Members of the IMC face delays in excise, sales tax and income tax matters. Ordinary citizens are confronted with delays when dealing with the government. Clinics in the IMC will sort out such problems.
The PCGT has limited capacity to address this enormous cancer of corruption, but with whatever means it has at its disposal, it is prepared to join the citizens of Mumbai to confront the menace.
