RTI ... the hope of a flood affected villager in Meghalaya

For us here, Drive against Bribe Campaign expectedly has been a wider RTI campaign. We had expected this although even if we hadn't, the logic of the events would have forced us beyond drive against bribe. Because a rudimentary knowledge about RTI had existed in some parts of Meghalaya because of the Movement and its public meetings and trainings, any attempt at a help desk would have brought forth other themes and concerns. And this has happened.
a) Perversion of Rural Development Schemes by MLAs, Bureaucracy and Contractors has meant that people have emerged from their frustrations to travel miles to conferr with us about the way RTI can help to open up the closed shop of these schemes.
Today at five, after the 200+ rush, tired volunteers are packing up to go. A man from beyond arrives with an ubiquitous crumpled polythene bag holding the secrets of his anger. We are tired, slightly dismissive, ask him to come in the morning. He informs us of his five hours long journey and of his mynsiem(soul) which has been battered by corruption. One of our volunteers, a girl from Mawnsynram, who was supposed to have voluteered for two days, but for her skills and rural sharpness, has become a help desk fixture- first to arrive, last to leave - sits with him and his poetry tumbles out. All the pains of exploitation can only be poetic.
There is a flood where we live. we have been immersed...nothing works...and now 'they' dont even come to meet us anymore...i think they no longer have boats...why do they despise us? is it because we are poor? or because we are ignorant...
It is not that villagers are ignorant of the ways of corruption, but they never had the means to challenge the mysteries of the paper work. He, like the person who was our first inquiry, has the list of non-existent works, schemes with fraudulent beneficiaries that both of them had collected through hearsay, gossip and hanging around the BDO office. They know of the files where their exploitations are locked. Only thing they need from us is assurance about a new law they have heard of called RTI which they can use to actually access the file