Morgantown, WV's Introduction to 5thPillar

On June 29th, 2008, a team of 5th Pillar members drove from their office in Virginia to Morgantown, West Virginia to conduct a three-hour seminar about 5th pillar. It was a very informative and interactive session explaining the evils of corruption, its effects on society, and how 5th Pillar aims to fight against it. It also discussed the past achievements, present occurrences, and future goals.

Dr. Jagannathan started off with an opening note on the how the people in our country are delayed and at times even denied their basic rights and services due to this overly grown and deep-rooted “weed” called corruption. He also mentioned that he has been strongly supporting the noble cause that 5th Pillar is fighting for; ever since the very first time that he came to know about the organization.

Mr. Vijay Anand proceeded to give an overview of 5th Pillar and the “need of the hour” for such an organization. He led an interactive session with the audience on “What they believe are the reasons for corruption to be so prevalent in our country”. The audience came up with several reasons including poverty and greed.

Later, Subasini Periyakarrupan and Sneha Radhakrishnan gave a Power Point presentation, which included the following:

1. Corruption statistics of India’s rankings (CPI)
2. The history of 5th Pillar
3. RTI Act 2005
4. Past achievements
5. Current Projects
6. Future goals
7. How you can support and volunteer

Afterward, Mr. Vijay spoke about some of the goals of the organization and why he felt the “need of the hour” and went into extensive detail and discussion about the RTI Act (Right To Information Act).

Soon after, Ruby Lawrence and Mr. Vijay talked about some of the major success stories of 5th Pillar. They quoted several incidences where 5th Pillar was able help our citizens obtain basic services and information without paying bribes by using the power of RTI Act and the Zero Rupee Note as tools.

Throughout the information session, the audience was fully engaged in the topics that were brought up and extended their full support to the cause. Towards the end, they even pledged, “I promise to neither accept nor give bribe” while holding the ZRN in their hand. The audience response was remarkable and we raised some donations. 5th Pillar hopes to have many more meetings like this with the NRI and the public to raise awareness and support 5th Pillar in its fight against corruption.