Hyderabad, March 25: The Communist Party of India has requested the State government to take immediate steps for appointment of commissioners in the State Information Commission to avoid pendency of appeals.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, CPI State secretary K. Narayana wanted the government to follow the procedure prescribed in the act in the appointment of commissioners failing which it would not be beneficial to the people. Steps should be taken to ensure appointment of at least 10 commissioners to assist the State Chief Information Commissioner in view of the large scale pending appeals and the scope for significant increase in the applicants.
While smaller States like Kerala, Punjab and Haryana had put in place adequate number of information commissioners in addition to the infrastructure, it was unfortunate that a bigger State like Andhra Pradesh had not taken necessary steps in this direction. The government should ensure that adequate funds were provided for the commission in line with Section 26 of the Act besides constituting commissionerates at the regional level to avoid hardship to the people coming from different places.
-Agencies