Telangana: Decisions by ministers and top officials on appeals to go online

HYDERABAD: Decisions taken by ministers and top officials on appeals submitted by people will not remain secret any longer.

They have discretionary powers to take decisions on appeals that they receive from the people on land disputes, disciplinary action on employees and administrative issues etc. These decisions were never made public; only petitioners are informed.

Now, the government has decided to upload the details online for scrutiny. The government feels that this will bring in transparency, hold ministers and officials accountable and check corruption and favouritism.

Complaints lodged by the people, especially with regard to demand for bribes, are referred to heads of departments for inquiry. If they are found to be genuine, they are referred to the minister concerned to initiate action.

Lobbying begins at this stage by the guilty personnel. Most of the complaints are closed at this stage without action being taken against errant staff. The petitioners are informed orally that the government has issued the staff a warning, or that nothing wrong was found.

When petitioners insist that officials give the information in writing, they refuse citing rules. The issue came up for discussion at a recent meeting conducted by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to review the status of appeals.

A GAD official said, “The CM opined that it was not proper to maintain secrecy on decisions taken by ministers and officials on the appeals.”

“He said the information should be made public. He asked us to begin this initiative with the revenue department, which receives a large number of appeals, and later extend it to other departments.” He said the information will be available for public in English initially and in Telugu later on the government website.

TS orders end of A secret affair

• 10,000 GOs have been marked ‘confidential’ in the last three years. Blank GOs are uploaded on the website, serving no purpose.
• 8,000 GOs have not uploaded been uploaded. A majority of them pertain to land allotments, withdrawal of police cases, disciplinary action on officials and staff.
• 1,000 GOs in the finance department were not uploaded on the website even after they were issued.