PUCL ask AP Govt. to activate all rights bodies
An officer worked in the Chief Minister's peshi for over six years, having credentials of `YES MAN' was made the Chief Information Commissioner. Though the provisions allow appointing upto 10 Information Commissioners, this has not happened.
THE 14th State Conference of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) expressed its severe concern over casual and negligent attitude of the Andhra Pradesh government over the functioning of various rights-based Commissions in the state. AP State Human Rights Commission, A P State Women’s Commission, A P State SC/ST Commission and AP State Information Commission were started in the state responding to international concerns and also nation-wide pressures. Morever, at the time of nominating suitable persons for these positions, the government has never attempted to appoint suitable persons with good track record keeping in view of their work and interests in respective fields. It is unfortunate that these bodies turned into political rehabilitation centers for the retired bureaucrats/judges in recognisation of their loyalty to the ruling party. The ugly scenes witnessed among members of Women’s Commission, who openly accused each others leveling serious corruption charges has exposed the credentials of the people being choosen by the government. While an active political leader was made as member of the Human Rights Commission, who is now acting-chairperson, SC/ST Commission, the Chairperson was given ruling party seat in the last elections. An officer, who has worked in the Chief Minister’s peshi for over six years, having credintials of `YES MAN' was made the Chief Information Commissioner. PUCL demanded that the state government should fill up all these vacancies within a month and also appoint 10 Information Commissioners. It also demands that the process of appointment should be transparent and priority should be given to persons having good track record, without political affiliations. The government should advertise these vacancies openly, invite nominations from the civil society and in a transparent way it should select among them. PUCL-AP also felt the need to increase the number of members in State Human Rights Commissions, in view of large scale complaints it has been receiving. It also suggests constituting atleast four regional offices, in various regions of the state to facilitate the victims from distant places to approach the Commission without problem. The conference also suggested that these bodies should work with close collaboration of civil society organizations and involve them in the areas of creating awareness among the people on their rights, assisting the victims and securing ground level reports. It also demanded that the state government should provide necessary resources and infrastructure to all these bodies for affective functioning. The government should ensure that proper debate should take place in the legislative bodies frequently on the functioning of these bodies. It ha also appealed to all the political parties to take interest on the functioning of these bodies. The conference resolved to approach the government seeking its immediate attention in this regard. It also decided to take up joint action programme along with other civil society groups to attract the attention of the government to focus on affective functioning of these bodies.
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