Success Story

Dr. Valluvan, practicing dermatologist in Virudhachalam was having difficulty due to power shut off between 10 am till noon daily. Usually there is a rotation in the time slot every week for power shutoff. But in his neighborhood the power was cut off everyday at the same time for several weeks. He filed an RTI petition, on 24th August 2009, asking the Divisional Engineer of Tamilnadu Electricity Board the reason behind the department to shutoff power at the same time, and the criteria to have chosen that particular time slot.

Mr. Karthick of Pullaiyar Kuppam village in Ulundurpettai Taluk, applied for a Bhimakaran LIC policy and had been paying the premiums, but did not receive the original copy of the policy document. He had been writing to the LIC Regional office repeatedly but did not get a reply or the policy document. He contacted our organization and the Rti coordinators in our office helped by writing an RTI petition to the District Regional LIC office. Mr. Karthick received a reply from the LIC District manager, and the copy of the policy was attached.

Mr. K. Velu, residing in Chennai had a problem with his ancestral property partition document. The document which had to include both his and his brother's name, had only his brother's name. He had applied to the Vandavasi Taluk Office, to have his name added to the land patta document. But he did not receive a responsible answer for the delay for the last 15 years. He came to know about 5th Pillar, and he visited our office in person with all the relevant documents. The RTI coordinator filed the RTI petition on his behalf on 23rd October 2009.

Kathavarayan, a 72 year old person residing in Then Alambakkam village in Villupuram District, had applied for Indhira Gandhi Old Age Pension that is granted for poor people below poverty line. Mr. Kathavarayan waited for many months after applying for this pension to the Dindivanam Tahsildar office, and when he was replied by a clerk at the Tahsildar office that the scheme is closed, he sent a pleading letter to the Chief Minister's office on 25th June 2008, begging for special consideration and grant him the pension as he has no means to survive.

Mr. Sankar, residing at Royapuram, Chennai lost his ration card in 2004 and had applied for a replacement ration card with all the essential documents at Royapuram Taluk Office. An official visited his residence after 2 months for an inquiry and asked him to visit the office after 2 months. Mr. Shankar has been meticulsly visiting the office for the past 5 years but could not meet with ant of the higher officials. In August 2009, he was informed that his application had been rejected and asked him to re appply.

Mr. Tamilselvan of Tirupattur in Villupuram District had witnessed illegal occupancy of the government property by miscreants. The public in that area had tried to vacate them by reporting to concerned government officers but to no avail. Tamilselvan visited our office in Chennai and the RTI coordinator filed an RTI petition on 27th October 2009, asking in detail about the evacuation procedure, the officer involved in the process and the time frame for the evacuation once the land is confirmed to be governmental property.

Mr. Nagarajan, ex correspondent of a primary school in Nagapattinam, had many queries regarding the Educational Development Funds that are allocated to the primary schools by the Education Department. His school did not receive the Educational Development Funds from 1992-1995. After 14 years of struggling to find answers he approached our organization, for filing a RTI petition. We filed the petition on his behalf on 7th October 2009. On 10th November, we received a reply indicating that by 30th March 2010 the funds will be disbursed to the school.

A corrupt Village Administrative Officer (VAO) Shanmugam who had demanded a bribe of Rs.3000 from a farmer Venkatesan residing in Kudianallur village Kallakurichi Taluk. Subsequently Mrs Asothammal another neighboring farmer applied for electricity connection for irrigation purpose, and when she produced her land patta for proof of residence she was denied connection as her land was registered on a different name by the corrupt VAO. Hence she realized that there was a substitute land patta fabricated by the corrupt VAO that was provided to another member of the conspiracy ring. Mrs.

• Mr. Annamalai residing in Chennai approached the ward councillor for the issue of patta for his mother's property
• He did not receive any information or the patta.
• Everytime someone applies for a patta the surveyor comes to their respective homes and collects Rs.1000 for issuinng the patta.
• He did not receive the patta as he refused to pay bribe.
• Through 5th Pillar he wrote an RTI Petition requesting the details about the concerned officer responsible for issuing the patta.

Residents of Aswini Anthara apartments, in Alandur, Chennai, approached 5th Pillar, when their repeated appeal to evacuate a factory from their neighborhood that was causing air and noise pollution was not heeded. The RTI coordinators at 5th Pillar filed an RTI petition to the TNPCB( Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board) on 18th September 2009.