TS govt. not updating GOs despite HC nudge

Govt. stopped uploading most GOs after Aug. 2015

Uploading of blank GOs (government orders) on Andhra Pradesh government’s official website created a furore recently, and it seems the situation is no better in Telangana.

The Telangana government completely stopped uploading GOs of public interest on the government official website raising questions on transparency in administration.

What one finds today on this website are insignificant GOs pertaining to paying cell phone charges of officials and buying water cans for employees etc. Even GOs pertaining to transfer of IAS and IPS officers are being kept secret and not uploaded on website. The classic example of this is when recently, the government transferred the collector and superintendent of police of Karimnagar district in July against the backdrop of Huzurabad bypoll, but those GOs were not uploaded in public domain.

Though the High Court rapped the state government several times on this issue, there are no corrective measures from the state government. Over

60,000 GOs have been missing from the website since the formation of the state in June

2014, according to RTI activists. The governments in undivided Andhra Pradesh used to upload all GOs promptly. All GOs ranging from land allotments to industries/individuals, key policy decisions, transfers and postings of IAS/ IPS officials, amount spent for government functions etc used to be kept in public domain and everyone had the access to view these GOs. After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, this website was also bifurcated between AP and Telangana.

The Telangana government promptly uploaded GOs until August 2015 when a GO was uploaded sanctioning `15 lakh to IAS officer Smita Sabharwal (secretary to the Chief Minister) towards legal expenses to enable her to file a civil defamation suit against Outlook magazine for publishing an article and a cartoon on her. The state government faced severe criticism and the GO was challenged in the High Court arguing why the government should bear legal fees for a private legal issue.

After this incident, the government stopped uploading all GOs and remained selective with a belief that people are challenging GOs in courts. Later, it blocked the website completely in February 2016 which triggered protests from RTI activists and Opposition parties. The government restored the website in April 2016 after petitions were filed in the High Court.

However, the government has categorised GOs as ‘general’ and ‘official’ since then and only uploads insignificant general GOs where no public interest is involved.

Huge public money is spent on government functions and programmes, helicopters, special flights being used for tours of Chief Minister, ministers, officials, valuable lands are allotted to industries, individuals for throwaway prices, ACB/vigilance cases on corrupt officials/ staff, but there is no scope for the public to know this information as none of these GOs see the light of the day.