Herath* living in Anuradhapura, Matale junction, Kunchikulama, Thulane enlisted a survey conducted in 2016 to get ownership of her land. She visited the Mihintale Divisional Secretariat several times with this regard.
Herath had come to the village in 2017, leaving the capital city Anuradhapura. After coming to her village, she was keen on getting details of the ownership of her land as per the survey that was conducted. According to the survey,she had made many trips to the Divisional Secretariat and Anuradhapura District Secretariat, for two years but has not received a clear response. All they have told her was that they did not have any information about such a survey, and that they did not do such a land survey.
Herath was not satisfied with officials feigning ignorance on the matter. After hearing woes of Herath a set of youth in the area guided her to apply a Right to Information application with regard to this land matter. Upon the instructions given by youth Herath applied a RTI and sent it to Mihinthale Divisional Secretariat.
In response she received a letter stating the possibility of providing her with the details of information and documents, which they had said earlier that they did not possess. She was asked to pay the stipulated government fees and collect the relevant documents.
The reply to the application as well as the documents provided her with the answers she needed pertaining to the ownership of her land. There was also some unexpected good news for her. The extent of the land had increased from the earlier extent as per the revelations of the documents. Mrs. Herath’s land had received the approval of provincial land commissioner.She was also able to find out that her land had been considered as a State property due to an error or an oversight.
Herath found out all these details due to the RTI application she filed and cleared the doubts about the ownership of her land. Herath thanks the youth in the area immensely for guiding her throughout.
The youth who guided Herath state that the solution Herath received is a definite victory. They say now they can convince other residents in the area how a single request of RTI can be so powerful. Further, they said that they hope to educate people in the area about RTI law and its uses citing Herath’s case as an example.
This update was prepared by participants of the Information and Communication Training Workshop conducted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) through a grant funded by the United States Agency for International Development through the Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability Project Activity.
“The contents of this post are the sole responsibility of SLPI and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.”
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