Hyderabad:
Andhra Pradesh Government has appointed three retired bureaucrats and a journalist as Information Commissioners (ICs) under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Retired Indian Police Services officers M Ratan, S Prabhakar Reddy, ex- Indian Forest Service officer C Madhukar Raj and journalist P Vijaya Babu have been appointed to the posts. Governor E S L Narasimhan approved just these four names out of the eight recommended by the Government.
The State Information Commission has been functioning with only the Chief Information Commissioner for over 18 months, despite a sanction of 10 ICs.
In its meeting on January 31, the selection committee, comprising Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha, chose eight candidates for appointment as ICs.
Out of these, the Governor rejected the names of Lam Tantiya Kumar, S Imtiyaz Ahmed, M Vijaya Nirmala and V Venkateswarlu as they had political affiliations and approved the names of the retired bureaucrats and the lone journalist.
As the issue kicked up a political controversy, the Government chose not to send the entire file to the Governor for re-consideration and decided to appoint only those candidates approved by the Governor.
Since the model code of conduct is in force in view of the next month's by-elections, the state government had sought the permission of the Election Commission (EC) three days ago to go ahead with the appointments.
A formal order, appointing the ICs, was issued on Thursday after the EC gave its green signal on Wednesday.
Retired Indian Police Services officers M Ratan, S Prabhakar Reddy, ex- Indian Forest Service officer C Madhukar Raj and journalist P Vijaya Babu have been appointed to the posts. Governor E S L Narasimhan approved just these four names out of the eight recommended by the Government.
The State Information Commission has been functioning with only the Chief Information Commissioner for over 18 months, despite a sanction of 10 ICs.
In its meeting on January 31, the selection committee, comprising Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha, chose eight candidates for appointment as ICs.
Out of these, the Governor rejected the names of Lam Tantiya Kumar, S Imtiyaz Ahmed, M Vijaya Nirmala and V Venkateswarlu as they had political affiliations and approved the names of the retired bureaucrats and the lone journalist.
As the issue kicked up a political controversy, the Government chose not to send the entire file to the Governor for re-consideration and decided to appoint only those candidates approved by the Governor.
Since the model code of conduct is in force in view of the next month's by-elections, the state government had sought the permission of the Election Commission (EC) three days ago to go ahead with the appointments.
A formal order, appointing the ICs, was issued on Thursday after the EC gave its green signal on Wednesday.
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