Mr. Mansoor from Rampawa of Madavachchiya DS division of the Anuradhapura district had a land issue. A Grama Niladhari claimed his land with a land permit. Mansoor need to get the original documents related to land permit from the DS office and he continuously tried to get it. He spent almost ten months but got none of the information. Even the officers did not respond to him. Sometime he spent all his day in the office and left home even without meeting the officer. While he was seeking help all over, he heard about RTI and TISL.
He made a visit to TISL Vavuniya and shared his issue with Ms. Vinothine, the project assistant, Vavuniya. She clearly explained about the RTI and facilitated him to submit an RTI request to the DS office. Then he made an RTI request to the DS office, and requested the acknowledgment in Tamil. The officer replied “We don’t have a Tamil officer and therefore, we cannot give an acknowledgment”. He requested them to state this in writing. The officer was taken aback, and asked him to wait for a while. Within an hour they gave the acknowledgment in Tamil.
When he visited the DS office to get the information, they asked him to come the next day. Again on the next day too he was asked to come the following day. Then he requested help from TISL Vavuniya office for the follow up. The project assistant made a telephone call and talked about appeal. Immediately the officers requested not to go for appeal and promised to provide the information next day. As promised, within a day they provided the requested information.
The information in Tamil, led him to reconfirm his ownership in the land and find out that the GN officer had a forged document.
image – Sri Lanka Brief