Mr. N. M. Rasic, from Akkaraipattu had an issue that accumulation of garbage near his surroundings. Nearly 10 families and a school get affected due to the bad smell and the mosquitoes due to the garbage accumulation. From 20th May 2017 he together with other house owners made a complaint to the Medical Officer of Health, Akkaraipattu. Since there was no action, the issue was taken to the President via “Tell the President” in July 2017. Until January 2018, no action was taken. But the level of garbage increased.
Mr.Rasic filed an RTI request with the help of Vavuniya TISL staff in January 2018 requesting the information about what the MOH has done for the complaint. 3-4 days after the garbage was cleared and a person from MOH office talked to Mr. Rasic whether he can get the RTI back. But he didn’t withdraw the RTI. “With no issue, the garbage was cleared. I realized the power of RTI” said Rasic happily.
This RTI was one of the effect of RTI van. Because Mr. Rasic heard about RTI via the RTI van event held in Akkaraipattu in November 2017. Now he wants to use the RTI request to collect information regarding his land issue. Since it is costly and time taken to process to visit Vavuniya, the TISL Vavuniya, directed him to Akkaraipattu NGO Consortium staff Mr. Nausath who is interested in helping the community and met the RTI van in Akkaraipattu. With the guidance of TISL Vavuniya, he supports Rasic to make the RTI requests.
image – dailymirror (not related to this story)