My campaign continues
Posted in Blog
It has been a hectic time filing RTIs. Between my wonderful new full time recruit Bharat Sinh Jhala, who brought the real figures of Gujarat farmers’ suicides out into the open and features in Rakesh Sharma’s film on the subject, and myself we have bombarded the authorities. And yesterday morning saw the arrival of 8 men from the Gota Housing Colony about which I have written earlier. With a bottle of murky bad smelling water filled from the tap that morning - yes yesterday was a lucky day when they DID get water. They came with the application as requested by us and I forwarded it to the Commissioner I P Gautham with a letter - and the bottle. As the AMC West Zone Office is within walking distance of us, Bharat Sinh decided to hand deliver it.
But it proved daunting. He first went to Sri Gautham’s office but his secretary refused to accept it. “Go and give it to his main office. He isn’t here”. Bharat tried to argue that he as a secretary must accept it , but to no avail. SImilarly with the Health Dept. and various others. All of them are terrified of us filing an RTI and demanding in thirty days what the status of the complaint is! Bharat came back bottle and letter in hand. I first contacted the press and then spoke to Sri Gautham’s assistant, someone who has been through many commissioners and knows me over the years. He finally sent someone to fetch both.
Meanwhile my request for an appointment with him, taking along people from different parts of the Constituency has not yet been acknowledged.
Another story in the upmarket and allegedly educated Srinanad Nagar Society, home to 5000 households of the upper middle class. When I visited them during the campaign there was a single cry - solve our dual water problems. Submerged during the monsoon, with cars swimming in the drive way, for the rest of the year they spend close to Rs 30 lakhs for drinking water. The bore wells are saline and the water is unusable for drinking or cooking. I went with the double offer of having Rajubhai, our water harvestign expert, set up absorbtion wells which would also recharge and cleanse the bore so that water levels would rise. No. This was too old fashioned for the men of the society ( previously, the complaints and cries of help were form the women). After one futile hour when all they wanted was to know if I could get them an appointment with the Commissioner, we left, disappointed.
I am planning to counter the government’s much hyped 15 crore Kisan Rath with a campaign in the villages about the real issues culminating in a meetign at the Town Hall at 5 pm on the 28th. I shall go back to many of the villages where I campaigned.
And I am investigating a new way of planting rice with much less water and three times the yield. Perhaps I can convince farmers to try it in a small portion of their land. ANd maybe water harvesting trenches as well?
This week I will also start a series of meetings on planning how to get together an organized party to continue strengthening this work and getting more people involved to continue the work till the next elections–whichever they are.
