9,200 Appeals Pending In Telangana Information Commission

Forum For Good Governance (FGG) Secretary M Padmanabha Reddy today said that the Telangana State Information Commission had turned dysfunctional since February 25, 2023, thanks to not having a Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners (ICs).

He said that there were 9,200 appeals pending in the Commission as on February 25, and that every month 650 new appeals were being filed.

Given the lackadaisical attitude of the government, the FGG had filed a PIL praying for the appointment of the Commissioners, Reddy said. However, the counter filed by State government to the PIL was amusing, he said - the government claimed that the staff in the Information Commission office were working, and so requested the court to dismiss the PIL as the commission was functioning.

What would the office staff do without Commissioners, he sought to know.

He said that the counter affidavit was non-committal on the appointment of Commissioners, and that the judge had expressed his unhappiness at the way the counter was filed by the government.

Reddy said that the State government was clearly not interested in the implementation of the RTI Act, and was averse to transparency in its working. This lack of transparency in administration was also leading to an increase in corruption, he opined.

The next hearing in the PIL is on July 5.