Sakshi Trust "RTI"

This story was published by Indian Express, Delhi, in August 2004:

Kapil Jain, a resident of Vishwas Nagar in east Delhi, doesn't fancy himself as a hero. "I am an ordinary person who wanted to lead an ordinary life. I live according to the principles of my father," says the 34-year-old, who gave up engineering because his father wanted him to become a teacher. 

However, when his neighbour began running an illegal plastic recycling factory, he couldn’t sit back and watch. ‘‘It was hell, absolute unbearable hell. The walls kept shaking, nauseating gases hung in the air,’’ he says, recalling the circumstances that led him to use the Delhi Right to Information Act.

The factory was started in 1993, a year before he got his job. ‘‘But my father would say, ‘how can we complain against our own neighbour?’’’ remembers Kapil. He first complained to the police in 1995 but that didn’t bring much relief.

He had almost given up hope and was contemplating selling off his house when he came across newspaper reports on the Right to Information Act in 2001. He soon picked up a booklet.

In December 2002, he filed a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police and forwarded a copy to the SDM of the area as directed in the booklet. ‘‘I visited the SDM’s office at least five times between February and August 2003. Finally, I approached the Deputy Commissioner’s office again and filed an application under the RTI Act, wanting to know what was happening to my complaint.

‘‘On September 1, I received a reply saying they had forwarded my complaint to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee but no reply had been received. So, on September 3, I filed an RTI application at the DPCC. Then, surprise of surprises, they replied they had already sent an inspection report of the unit categorizing it a polluting unit liable to be shut down,’’ he says.

Jain got a copy of the DPCC’s letter classifying the unit as illegal and himself approached the SDM. ‘‘The factory was sealed the next day,’’ says Jain triumphantly.

Kapil is angry that nobody has been held accountable for his family’s bad health and losses — including an unborn child. Instead he had to face the ire of his neighbours. The couple now await the birth of their first child in December this year