The eight names were cleared by the selection committee on January 31, 2012. The Telugu Desam party President N Chadnrababu Naidu, who was a member of the committee being the opposition leader in the state assembly, has returned the file rejecting those names on Wednesday, though he was silent during the meeting. It seems that he has rejected those names considering criticism against names chosen by the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, when the civil society organizations representatives met the Governor on Thursday requesting him to reject those names, sources said that he has given them clear indications on such possibility. However, he assured them that he would critically scrutinize all those names. The representatives were headed by former union home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah, former chief secretaries of Andhra Pradesh Government V K Srinivasan and Kaki Madhava Rao.

When the same delegation met the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday appealing him to reconsider those names, he bluntly denied their plea. On the other hand he lamented criticism against his selection stating that even though many of them are active politicians they would disassociate politics once they are appointed.

The civil society organizations working in the Right to Information area have strongly criticized the nominations holding that they smack of political patronage. Some organizations have perhaps already approached you in writing, to look into the appropriateness of the selection panel’s recommendations. They alleged that the very process of decision making and recommendation has been grossly vitiated for want of transparency and openness. They appealed the Governor to direct the Government to process the entire matter afresh in accordance with the spirit and letter of the RTI Act and in accordance with guidelines and principles laid down by the Supreme Court and a few High Courts.

Among eight members recommended, three are alleged to be actively involved in politics and also contested the 2009 elections to the Legislative assembly  as political party nominee Mr Imtiaz Ahmed, one of the nominees contested the Assembly elections twice as a Telugu Desam nominee, against the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy himself. But he had recently joined the Congress party. Smt.Vijaya Nirmala another nominee had contested the Nuzvid constituency seat on Praja Rajyam ticket in 2009 but lost. Praja Rajyam has now merged with Congress. Smt. l.Tantiya Kumari had contested from the Tiruvuru Assembly Constituency as a Congress candidate in 2009, but lost. One serving IPS officer was also selected. None of them are known of having any experience in civil society activism, if not on Right to Information activism.