The fight begins

I am a student of the National Institute of Technology, Raipur and I am supposed to be in the VII th Semester but I don't know where exactly I am at present.

It all started when I was told that I would be getting detained for a year because I could not clear one of my Practicals even after 4 attempts though I had obtained 75% in the theory portion of the same subject. I could not believe that this was actually happening and my mind went numb. Numerous requests and long waiting periods outside the Director's office did not help me and I was just being taken for granted like every student in my college. The management just did not care whether I detained or attained.

After losing all hopes from the shabby management, I decided I would not just let it all go just like this and initially I had planned to protest and raise my voice against the management. I had planned on burning an effigy of our Director right in front of him but then I soon realized that nothing of that sort was going to be of any aid to me and I would not be gaining anything out of it either.

I discussed it all with my friends and family and finally I decided and promised to myself that I would get back at the management someday and someway but I would be doing it soon. By sheer luck I stumbled upon the most powerful weapon that our government has given us citizens, the Right to Information. I read everything about the RTI Act 2005 and decided that I will be using this Right of mine to shake the management.

Long hours were spent on the college "tapri" discussing RTI with some very good and trusted friends from the same college. And very quicky from one person alone, I now had nine people with me who also needed a platform to fight against the college because they were under tremendous pressure and frustration, all of which was created cause of our college. Someone had been detained because of a low aggregate (thanks to the ultra low sessionals we obtain) , someone else had not been given admission because he was one day late, another person had been framed by the management in a recent fee scandal and his mark sheets had been confiscated by the college authorities. And so then from "I" it became "We".

We then submitted applications with paid challans to the Director Incharge's office seeking information using RTI Act 2005 about the following :

• Golden Jubilee celebrations of the college (where supposedly the college had received 1 crore rupees for the function).
• Grant received from the Central Government for the college after it has been declared as N.I.T. and where the money was spent.
• A detail of Computers / Electronic equipment purchased by the college after it has been declared as N.I.T.
• List of Civil Construction / Repair tenders and quotations passed by the college management by self after the college has been declared as N.I.T.

We knew that the management was corrupt and they would definitely wake up to this. Now I hear that the college management is in a frenzy and everyone is running away like cats and dogs. We are still waiting for the reports to come out and I am sure they have no escape now.

It had all started as a fight to get back at the management but then now I feel that I should have done it all long time back. This whole incident has given me an amazing boost in confidence and has made me believe in myself strongly. I may not gain anything out of this whole exercise but I am happy I did this and made the management realize that they cannot take everyone for granted.

The college is there cause the students are there. Its high time the authorities realize this and everyone starts doing their duties properly and if they don't then we are going to make them do it.


Here are some newspaper clippings showing me and my friends starting our fight with the corrupt management: