Telangana and AP: Information commissioner's term ends, commission defunct

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Information Commission, established in 2005 under the Right To Information Act, became defunct on Friday, with the lone commissioner, P. Vijay Babu, demitted office after completing his five-year term.

The commission has been functioning for both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation. It became headless with the exit of Chief Information Commissioner M. Ratan on April 22.

There is no word yet from either the Telangana state government or the AP government about re-constituting the commission.

This institution has been listed in the 10th Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act and both states can go ahead and appoint their own commissions with a Chief Information Commissioner and nine Information Commissioners each.

When contacted, senior officials of the TS and AP governments gave the same reason – that their respective Chief Ministers were away and returned only on Friday.

They say that Chief Ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu, will now be apprised of the matter, and a decision can be taken.

The Information Commission is the final authority to adjudicate on second appeals from petitioners whose RTI petitions seeking information from the department information officer concerned and the first appellant have been rejected.

According to the latest information, as many as 10,000 appeals are pending with the Information Commission. The number will only grow till the new commission is appointed and begins work.