Governor E S L Narasimhan is likely to take his time in opening the file sent to him late Friday night by the state government. It recommends the same four names for appointment as information commissioners that he had returned for reconsideration a year ago.
Asked what Raj Bhavan’s response to the government’s reiteration of the four names is, sources told Express, “The governor’s office has received the file. The governor is yet to go through it.”
The frost between Raj Bhavan and the state government thickened Friday night when the state government sent a file recommending the names of Imtiaz Ahmed, L Tantiya Kumari, Muttamsetti Vijaya Nirmala and V Venkateswarlu for appointment as information commissioners. Back in January 2012, the state government had included these four names among the eight it recommended. While approving four of the appoinments, Narasimhan asked for a reconsideration of these four names, stating that they had political affiliations. Rights activists too opposed the appointment of Imtiaz Ahmed, Tantiya Kumari, Vijaya Nirmala and Venkateswarlu as information commissioners.
On Friday, the chief minister held a meeting and decided to propose the same four names again and sent the filed to the governor.
As per the Right to Information (RTI) Act, those having vast knowledge and social workers are to be appointed as RTI commissioners and not those with political affiliations.
The opposition leader ought to have been to the meeting to finalise the names. Information about the meeting on Friday was sent to the TDP office but leader of the opposition Chandrababu Naidu could not attend as he is on a tour of Krishna district.