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Chandigarh’s Goodfellas: Meet the public-spirited RTI activist who gets things done
For more than a decade, Chandigarh-based Right To Information (RTI) activist RK Garg has been pointing out irregularities in government functioning across departments with razor-sharp precision. He spends six months in meticulous research and planning on an issue before filing a RTI
We might not have told him this but Ram Kumar Garg would have made a fine general. With a well-trained eye to spot trouble where least expected, he works hard, yes, very hard, in planning his strategy, in his case a Right To Information (RTI) application. He then attacks with military precision as his applications ask just the right questions, often leaving officials red-faced and with no choice but to face the consequences.
“I have no mala fide intention when I choose an issue or department. It’s never personal. If something is not right and it affects the common man, the society at large, I take it up,” says Garg.
It’s hard to see this 62-year-old, former income tax consultant with a petite frame and soft demeanour as driven. But thanks to his single-handed effort, Garg has been able to point out serious irregularities in the working of the administration through RTIs.
Be it pointing out the lack of drunken-driving nakas in VIP sectors, the glaring anomalies in the functioning of the Rock Garden and the Mansa Devi Temple, the use of red beacons by UT officials or the non-filing of tax returns by Tagore Theatre to the functioning of various societies set by the UT administration, Garg has raised these issues backed with facts and figures over the years. He is a one-man team who works out of his home-office in Sector 27. He says if you were to address a letter with just his name and ‘RTI activist in Sector 27’ written on top, the letter would reach him.
“I always kept a watch on the functioning of the administration but it was only in the year 2000 that I starting using RTI as a tool to find out where the problem was,” reminisces Garg, a post-graduate in commerce. Hailing from Kurukshetra district, Garg initially worked with the Indian customs department and was posted in Maharashtra in the early 1980s. “I always wanted to write and I first penned a letter which appeared in the Blitz magazine. When I shifted to Chandigarh, I got busy in settling down with my family,” informs Garg who has two daughters and a son. While one of his daughters and son are chartered accountants, his second daughter is a doctor.
“Once I was free from my responsibilities, I took it upon myself to file RTIs. I found issues wherever I went,” says the RTI activist, who is fully supported by his wife and encouraged by his children. “If you take a tour of Chandigarh with me, I can show you innumerable changes that I have brought about in some of the most important areas of the city,” says Garg. He lists the example of the boundary wall of the Le Corbusier Centre. “I was appalled to see that an important building as this had no wall.”
For someone who had never worked on a computer, Garg’s office boasts of meticulously filed paperwork with him working on a new generation computer with ease. “I never found it daunting but yes I learnt to operate it. It’s very handy indeed,” he smiles.
‘Never be afraid to say what you really feel’ reads a status on his Facebook timeline and that’s something Garg truly stands by. “I have studied the system very well and I never make hasty decisions. When I am convinced of the problem, I set about researching it. Sometimes I spend close to six months collecting information and then I file the RTI application,” says Garg. Even when he receives the reply, Garg says he waits for the reaction of the officials. “I revisit the issue after a few months to see if things have changed. If not, I then take it up and pass the word to the media.”
Asking the right questions is the key, he agrees. “I have lost count of the number of applications I have filed, but yes there was a month when I filed an application every day,” he says. And there isn’t a department that he hasn’t touched. “The Estate Office, the Registering and Licensing Authority, the health department...I have highlighted serious issues everywhere. I even visited all the cremation grounds in the city with officials to see how they are functioning and what needs to be done,” explains Garg. More recently, he also wrote to get the night shelters up and running before time due to the early cold spell this month.
Working on multiple issues simultaneously comes easy to him. But we wonder if extracting information can be difficult at times. Has he ever been intimidated by those in power, we ask Garg. “I am fearless and I don’t bother about what others say. Over the years, I have gained respect for my work and I am taken seriously. There are times when someone would try and resist giving out information but I know how to tackle it. I write back and then they have no choice,” he quips.
He does share the one occasion when Shivraj Patil, former Governor and UT Administrator lost his cool during a public hearing session when Garg questioned him on some issues. “He asked me not to argue and dealt with me in a high-handed way. I think that was the only time I felt someone’s ire,” recalls Garg.
Not one to take it easy, Garg has also formed ‘Second Innings Association’, an association of senior citizens that will take up issues related to security and wellbeing of senior citizens in the tricity. “That is an area I really want to focus on along with issues of women safety and the girl child,” he tells us. To help others in understanding RTIs, he has set up a phone helpline as well. “People often come to me for advice. I do my best to guide them but I never file for them. That is something they have to do on their own,” he sums up.
(For RTI-related queries, please call 9872692400 or mail mailrtichd27@gmail.com)
