The Andhra Pradesh government led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to discard the practice of uploading Government Orders or GOs on respective government websites. A circular in that regard was issued earlier this week on Sunday by Revu Muthyala Raju, Principal Secretary of the General Administration Department (GAD) of the state government.
With this, GOs/Orders issued by the state government would not be uploaded or accessible at the www.goir.ap.gov.in. A circular sent by the Principal Secretary to all departments read, "The System of generating G.O. numbers and display of Government Orders should be done as per the A.P. Secretariat Office Manual and A.P. Government Businesses Rules as in the system prevailing in other states and Government of India with regard to government orders/ Office Memoranda." It then dispensed off the system of generating numbers from GOIR website.
The procedure of uploading GOs online was started in 2008 by late CM YS Rajasheker Reddy in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, which even the newly formed Telangana too adopted. Earlier last week, a row broke out as a series of blank GOs were uploaded. As per the reports GOs were uploaded on the website with no details and the content remained hidden. But with this latest circular, the Jagan government has reversed on this tradition.
The order which came into enforcement instantly curtails a citizen's right to access, download or avail copies of orders issued by the state government. This move by the state government has not gone down well with the opposition too.Telugu Desam Party has pointed out that the decision was made to keep citizens in the dark about issues of governance.
Devineni Uma Maheshwar Rao, former state Water Resources Minister and TDP leader said, "Are you hiding the GOs to cover your mistakes? Is it not like blindfolding people to only post the GOs tha the government wants to". He also stated that the move was a violation of the rights of people.
TDP spokesperson and leader Pattabi Ram lashed out at the decision calling it an undemocratic move, he said that citizens have the right to know what kind of decisions are being taken by the government in the age of RTIs.
Pattabi said, "It clearly exposes the fact that Jagan Reddy is trying to hide the corruption that is taking place in his government, CM has issued this circular just to hide their corruption".
Pattabhi further questioned the urgency that led the CM to stop a 13-year old procedure of uploading GOs, while alleging that the Jagan government already lacks transparency.
TDP has requested Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan to enquire into the matter. TDP's MLA Gadde Rammohan and general secretary V Ramaiah who met the Governor alleged that around 50 GOs issued by the GAD without any content are raising suspicion.