Hyderabad: The General Administration Department has topped in Telangana state in issuing “Confidential Government Orders” putting the “transparency” claims of the government in question.
The general public have no access to confidential GOs as the content of GOs is not put in the public domain unlike other GOs. Confidential GOs are supposed to be issued when the government considers the content of GO as “sensitive” or in the “interests of state”.
However, the GOs pertaining to dropping of vigilance cases, dropping of prosecution or approving prosecution in ACB cases against corrupt staff are being kept “confidential” and no one is in a position to explain how such GOs can be treated as sensitive or threat to the interests of state or law and order.
Out of 30,248 GOs issued by the TS government till date since it came to power on June 2, 2014, as many as 362 were kept confidential. Of them, GAD alone issued 151 confidential GOs. Interestingly, GAD portfolio is held by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The other departments which lead in issuing confidential GOs include home (93) and revenue (35).
The department of panchayat raj and rural department held by K.T.Rama Rao, also remains one of the top-five departments in issuing confidential GOs at 28.
Though GOs are supposed to be public documents, the government is keeping them a “secret” and resorting to suppression of information. Official sources in GAD said the reason for GAD topping the confidential GOs was that these GOs pertain to expenditure incurred by Chief Minister’s Office on foreign visits, local visits and other administrative purposes.
“A majority of GAD confidential GOs include dropping of vigilance cases, prosecution cases of ACB among others. Though there is no sensitivity or any security threat to state if these GOs are disclosed, they are kept as confidential due to political and other pressures. The other confidential GOs include allotment of lands to industries and firms by revenue department. These are kept confidential on the request of investors for various reasons, which cannot be disclosed,” a senior IAS officer who headed GAD department for a few years.
What surprises one is that even the medical and health department issued 20 confidential GOs raising questions over what the sensitivity and threat to state interests is involved with this department. Law department too issued 10 such GOs.
RTI activists question the rationale behind issuing such a large number of confidential GOs even in the departments that do not deal in sensitive or security issues saying that it was in violation of Section 4 of Right to Information Act, which categorically states that, “the basic premise of the RTI Act is the concept that the individual citizen is a sovereign in his own right, and is the owner of the Government.”
