Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and Malkajgiri MP A. Revanth Reddy moved the Telangana High Court seeking a direction to the State government to respond to his Right to Information Act (RTI) application for details over Nehru Outer Ring Road’s Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) agreement with a private entity.
Mr. Reddy stated in the writ petition, which is likely to come up for hearing soon, that he had filed an application under RTI with the Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited on May 1 for details about the ORR TOT agreement the government had entered with IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited. He stated in the plea that police stalled him from personally meeting the Principal Secretary of HMDA at the Secretariat to file the application on that day.
According to the petitioner, HGCL gave a partial details and he had filed another application on June 14 seeking further details on the matter. He maintained that while he was awaiting reply for the application, the HMDA filed a civil suit in City Civil Court and secured a gag order on him not to make any statements on the matter.
Mr. Reddy contended in the plea the civil suit was the State government’s retaliatory move over his attempts to ascertain facts about the ORR TOT agreement. He stated that he had to knock the High Court doors as there was no reply to his second query from the government despite lapse of the mandatory 30 days period.
There was no scope for moving the appellate authority as the offices of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners were vacant. He stated that on September 13, 2022, the Union government issued an office memorandum comprising guidelines on how administrators should respond to queries from Members of Parliament.
Despite such clear guidelines and attempts through RTI Act applications, the government did not provide any details on the matter, he stated.
