Project Name             Fellowship: Swati Maliwal   

NGO                           AID - Delhi   

District                       East Delhi   

State                          Delhi   

Budget Proposed         Rs 120000    

Budget Approved         Rs 120000  

Contact                       Somu Kumar ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Summary

Right to Information is the most progressive act which when used properly will be a vital tool in proper governance and eliminating corruption. Swati’s present work proposes to keep a check, using RTI as the means, on the Delhi roads so that they are constructed and maintained as per the guidelines.  She will also conduct an in-depth study of the Special Economic Zones coming up in India.

Goals

Use RTI to improve functioning of PWD with respect to roads in Delhi.

• Start work on roads that have been approved but no work has started
• Inspection of roads, sample of the material used by involving Civil Engineering students/faculty in Delhi Colleges
• Identify cases of corruption
• Identify systemic causes and loopholes that enable corruption to thrive
• Through research and experience advocate reforms

Use RTI in Special Economic Zones

• Research as to how did this idea came about, what are the economical, environmental and sociological implications of SEZ on the society
• Understand the decision-making process of the government in approving of SEZ, selection of a SEZ site etc.
• Verifying the claims in the media of the government with regards to benefit v/s cost is in tune with those identified by the officials
• Verify that the policies of the government were followed in the SEZ approval process 

Achievements

• Mobilized of Civil Engineering students of IIT Delhi to participate in the RTI campaign for better roads
• Filed applications regarding 42 roads in Delhi covered by the PWD
• Work on Madhu Vihar road started immediately after inspection of the road under RTI. Swati had filed the RTI application in this case.
• Filed several applications under the Act in all the concerned Central Government Ministries and also in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, requesting them to allow inspection of the files related to SEZs in their department.
• Received permission from the Prime Minister’s Office, CBEC, CBDT, Ministry of Agriculture, DGEP and the Ministry of Commerce.
• Inspected the files in CBDT
• In the process of inspecting somewhere around 2200 files in the Commerce Ministry