RTI activists oppose appointment of new Information officers

Times of India: Hyderabad: Monday, February 04, 2013.

Opposing the impending appointment of new information officers with political affiliations, RTI activists across the state are planning massive protests. They said they are afraid that the biased information officers would not provide important information.

Activists are now trying to get an audience with governor ESL Narsimhan, to convince him about the issue.

Activists said the whole procedure was clear contempt of Supreme Court orders as it clearly specifies a candidate with political affiliation cannot be selected. Activists are now planning to approaching court.

"What the state government has done is totally illegal, arbitrary and a motivated action," said senior RTI activist C J Karira, who shot off a letter to the governor on the issue. "The state government has intentionally misinterpreted the Act for its own benefit. The Act makes it clear that those who have political connections cannot be considered for the posts but the state government is trying hard to make it look as if these candidates will terminate their political ties immediately upon selection," he said.

It may be recalled that in the past, the governor had rejected names of Imtiaz Ahmed, L Tantiya Kumari, M Vijayanirmala and V Venkateshwarlu, since they had direct political affiliations with one party or the other and were opposed by RTI activists.

Surprisingly the same names have been okayed by a selection committee, headed by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and sent back to the governor recently. There were doubts on selection committee meeting not following laid down criteria as well.

"The selection committee consisting of chief minister, another cabinet minister and the leader of opposition should meet and finalise the names. But TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu is busy with his padayatra. If he (Naidu) was not part of this meeting, how was it constituted? In the past, the Madras high court had rejected appointments on similar grounds because the leader of opposition was not part of the meeting." he said.

Recently, the Supreme Court said that information commissions should be headed by a retired judge and each bench should work with two members, a judicial member and a non-judicial member.

While this order has created confusion and still needs be resolved, the state government's hasty decision has surprised many. "It is a clear contempt of Supreme Court orders as the state government is not following the guidelines for the selection procedure," said former IFS officer and RTI activist M Padmanabha Reddy.

B Ramakrishna Raju, convenor, united forum for RTI campaign said if these candidates were selected for the posts of information commissioners, it would be difficult for the RTI activists to work. "How can the state government again recommend the names that have already been rejected. Government should consider the peoples sentiments and respect their opinion also," Raju added.