Samachara Hakku Chatta Prachara Ikya Vedika state secretary Jampa Krishna Kishore on Tuesday said that public ballot will be held on Wednesday at Lenin Centre and Patamata Centre (near e-seva office) from 10 a.m. seeking public opinion on the appointment of information commissioners recently by the State government.
In a release, Mr. Kishore said that the Government had recently announced the names of eight persons as information commissioners but much to the dismay of many, some of them had political affiliations and no sufficient knowledge in law.
Names rejected
Three names have already been rejected by the Governor. “Quality people with no self-interest and knowledge in law should be made the information commissioners. They should be unbiased and should work to protect the interests of the people,” he added.
He said that the ballot will ask the opinion of people as whether the Chief Minster, deputy chief minister and opposition leader in the floor of Assembly, who were among the eight-member panel, acted in an impartial manner while appointing others as panel members. He said that the right to information act was a most powerful one as it helps people getting information from bureaucrats and other officials on crucial issues. “As the act of a valuable one, people who deal with it should be above bias and suspicion,” he felt.
In Guntur an open ballot on appointment of RTI Commissioners organised by United Forum on RTI Campaign evoked a good response from the public.
Jana Vignana Vedika State president Lakshma Reddy said that it was unfortunate that Chief Minister himself was trying to water down the RTI Act. The State Government had blatantly violated provisions under section 15 (6) and appointed persons with affiliations to political parties. He said that open ballot was held in 230 centres across the State. General Secretary, RTI Forum and SIRI president T.V Bhaskar, Human Cause director Srinivasa Reddy also spoke.
