Activists of the Right to Information Act have appealed to the State government to put all G.O.s in the public domain as keeping them offline was against the guidelines of the RTI Act-2005. They said that the government’s recent decision to not post the G.O.s online would lead to large-scale corruption and denial of the people’s right to have access to information.
According to them, the government started keeping the G.O.s on the websites of the respective departments since 2008 when Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The system ensured transparency in administration although the government put some of them in confidential category.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s State convener for Right to Information (RTI) wing Vengamamba Srinivas said that the RTI Act was enacted to enable people to express their views after obtaining information from the respective departments. “People can express their view points on the administration when they have access to government orders. The A.P. government’s latest decision leads to many doubts over its intention. We have no other option except approaching the High Court over the issue,” said Mr. Srinivas.
‘Transparency will be lost’
Samachara Hakku Ikya Vedika Srikakulam district convener Jhadtheela Srinivasa Rao said that transparency should be maintained in government orders since they were under public documents category. “Good governance is possible only when there is no secrecy in administration. Public has the legitimate right to know the government’s decisions. Offline method will lead to suspicion of every decision taken by the government,” said APCO retired manager and RTI activist N.L. Narayana. There was no guarantee that the government would provide data even if applications were filed under the RTI Act. “The whole society has the right to know each and every step of the government. Offline is nothing but a dark line. We will fight over the issue till the government takes back its decision,” said Mr. Narayana, who has been organising awareness programmes in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts for the last 15 years over the RTI Act.
