Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly K. Jana Reddy on Thursday took serious exception to the TRS government blocking the website for GOs (government orders) abruptly, saying that it amounted to violation of the Right to Information Act.
He said all GOs were put on public domain for over a decade by earlier governments to ensure transparency in governance, but the TRS government has blocked the website without citing any reasons, making it difficult for public representatives and common people to access government information.
Mr Reddy said the TRS government would require over Rs 5 lakh-crore to fulfill poll promises and going by its poor performance in the past two years, it was a foregone conclusion that it cannot fulfill them as it can’t earn that much revenue or get such huge loans.
“On one hand, you talk about transparency and good governance, and on the other, you close the GOs’ website unilaterally and block government information for common people and public representatives. If you think that by blocking the website, you can hide the information from the public forever, you are wrong. It may take a few days or weeks or months, but the information would come out in open some day,” Mr Reddy said.
He demanded the website be restored immediately. “People and public representatives are forced to run around government offices seeking information on GOs. They are forced to apply for RTI even to obtain basic information. Why they should be made to suffer like this,” he asked.
Continuing his speech on the Budget debate, Mr Reddy wondered how the TRS government can implement its schemes and fulfil poll promises relying on loans.
“You are implementing Water Grid (Mission Bhagiratha) and 2BHK housing schemes relying on loans. Water Grid requires over Rs 40,000 crore. You have also promised to build 2 lakh 2BHK houses this year itself, for which nearly Rs 15,000 crore is required. As per your intensive household survey, there are nearly 15 lakh homeless in the state for whom you promised to build 2BHK houses for which over Rs 1 lakh-crore is required. Who will give such huge loans as there would be no returns on them? How can you repay those loans when your finances are not in a position to pay even the interest on those loans,” the Leader of the Opposition asked.
