In an interesting interview with Umesh Kumar Turi, Sonu Raj Mehda a RTI activist from Hazaribag, explains the act along with detailing out how and why it can be used by common people. He explains with an example where any student before applying to a particular course of any specific college or institution could know about the ranking of the college along with the specifications of degree he or she will attain upon completion of the course. Mr. Mehda stressed that in today's context where management colleges are cropping up like mushrooms, it is imperative for the students to know before hand what they are going in for. He further explained what in India comes under the RTI act, and which institutions and bodies are kept out of its jurisdictions. He gave example, that bodies like BCCI, posts like the President of India, the Supreme court of India, and any political parties and politicians, do not come under the RTI act, which means none of these bodies and posts are answerable under the RTI act. Upon asking whether according to him this makes sense, he answered that while honourable President can still be kept be outside this, but political parties and politicians should be brought under the RTI act. He further added that people have every right to seek information about the funds like MLA/MP fund that is being given to the MP and MLAs for local development. Common citizens do not stand a chance to know where these funds are spent. He stated while many political parties distribute alcohol, clothes and even hard cash during election. People should know from where they are spending these amounts. He mentioned that the promises the political parties make before election should be directly related to the funds available to them and hence its a pre-requisite for common people to know how much of the promises made by the parties even stand a chance to be fulfilled and how much of them are void to its core. He said that every individual in the service-sector in India not only pays upto thirty percent of their hard-earned money but they indirectly contribute to the nations earning even when they buy a match-box. So the people have every right to ask where their money is getting spent. He expressed that implementation of RTI could be one of first step towards understanding the level of corruption and hence conceptualizing ways to tackle it. If we come to know about the flow of cash to any institution, parties etc, along with the spending or even estimation of probable spending on specific heads then transparency and accountability can be rendered to the whole process. He mentions if we, people who have a job, do not have a way to even escape tax deduction from our salary then why certain people, institutions are so shamelessly kept out of it, where people do not come to know how much of the cost is going to construct the road in front of your own house, what is the amount of the tender. He therefore strongly urged the citizens to be aware of the fact that they should make the government and it's machinery accountable for the money that is the citizes' money.
