Times of India: Charminar: Saturday,
April 22, 2017.
The Telangana
government has refused to give a copy of the Bhaskara Rao Commission inquiry
report to a right to information activist, citing a section of the RTI Act
which exempts disclosure of certain information. The Bhaskara Rao Commission
was constituted to probe the incident of police firing in the aftermath of the
Mecca Masjid bombing of 2007 in which several people were killed. More than 10
years after its formation, the inquiry report is yet to be made public.
Activist S Q
Masood, who had sought a copy of the report for academic purposes, said that
the AP Information Commission had ordered the government to come clean with a
response. "It was on January 20 that chief information commissioner M
Ratan had ordered the General Administration (Law and Order) Department to
reply to the query within a span of 30 days. I had requested that I be allowed
to view the contents of the file, in case a copy cannot be given," he
said. Quoting section 8 (1) (c) (information, the disclosure of which would
cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the state legislature), the
department refused access.
The
department also said that the report will first have to be tabled in the
Telangana state legislative assembly before it can be released.
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