This story was published by Indian Express, Delhi in August 2004:The East End Apartments, as the name tells you, are on the eastern fringe of the city. The MCD could not be bothered if the residents had to walk on unlit, potholed roads. That they mostly used an approach route through neighbouring Noida is incidental. Jagdish Sharma, a senior manager with the State Trading Corporation, lives here in a two-bedroom apartment with his wife and son. ‘‘Returning home after dark was a bumpy ride on a dark road. It ran along the Hindon canal, which cuts the colony off from Mayur Vihar (Phase I). Snatchings were common and there was even a murder on the road,'' recalled Sharma. It was local physician Dr R S Gupta who introduced Sharma to RTI. ‘‘I got to know that the road was being shown with streetlights on paper. So my first query through an RTI application was regarding this,'' he said. Within days, he found MCD men at work on that stretch and the road was soon lit up. ‘‘This encouraged me and I filed another application for repair work to be carried out on this road,'' he said. The RWA pitched in. ‘‘Within a month, work on the entire approach road in the jurisdiction of MCD began and a 45-foot wide approach road with proper drains was built. The road also had a divider and the metallic road came upto the colony's gates,'' Sharma said. Sharma, who bought the flat and moved in in 1990, says the entire 2-km stretch under the MCD is now metalled and well-lit. ‘‘But there is a section under the UP irrigation department which is still devoid of any maintenance. Since we have to come to this part of Delhi via Noida, we have to cover this short unlit distance. Wish UP also had an RTI Act,'' he said. He is now busy filing another RTI application for repairing the approach road from Vasundhara Enclave.