Telangana govt withheld over 15,000 GOs, High Court orders disclosure
HYDERABAD: A Right to Information (RTI) reply revealed that most Government Orders (GOs) issued by the Telangana state government in over a year remain outside the public domain, raising concerns about transparency in administration. In a setback, the Telangana High Court has directed the Congress-led state government to disclose all withheld Government Orders (GOs) within four weeks and make them publicly available.
The Information Technology, Electronics & Communications (ITE&C) Department provided this information in response to an application from Former Minister and Siddipet MLA T. Harish Rao. The data covers December 7, 2023, to January 26, 2025.
According to the reply, state departments issued 19,064 GOs during this 14-month period. Of these, only 3,290 (17.3%) are available online, leaving 15,774 (82.7%) inaccessible to citizens on official portals.
The department-wise breakdown indicates inconsistent transparency. Key finance and policy departments have low publication rates. The Finance Department, which issued the most GOs (3,720), has made only 17 (0.5%) public. The Planning Department has uploaded 207 of its 379 GOs (54.6%). Several major departments, including Home (1,470 GOs) and Higher Education (312 GOs), have not uploaded any orders to the public portal. In contrast, the Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Department has made 697 of its 734 GOs public (95%), and Public Enterprise has uploaded 154 of 158 (97.5%).
In its reply, the ITE&C Department, which manages the GOIR (Government Orders Information Repository) portal, stated that all departments have been provided with logins to upload GOs via an online application. The department added that “based on the nature of the GO type, state Government departments are uploading the GOs.”
This explanation does not specify the criteria for determining which GOs are disclosed, raising questions about selective transparency.
The Telangana High Court has directed the Congress-led state government to disclose all withheld Government Orders (GOs) within four weeks and make them publicly available. This directive follows a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by BRS senior leader Errolla Srinivas, based on data obtained through a Right to Information (RTI) application.
Former Minister and BRS senior leader T. Harish Rao, who filed the original RTI, described the judgment as “a slap in the face for the so-called people’s government.”
“What is the government doing by hiding 15,774 GOs in just one year?” Harish Rao asked in a post on social media platform X. “Is this the people’s government you spoke of, Revanth Reddy? It’s not enough to call yourself a people’s government; reveal what you are secretly doing behind the veil of these dark GOs.”
He added that the Congress government, which came to power promising transparency, is now being held accountable by the court.
