Hyderabad – Makkah Masjid firing: Govt turns a deaf ear to RTI query on panel report

CHARMINAR: The state government consecutively turns a blind eye in providing Justice Bhaskara Rao Commission report on the Mecca Masjid police firing.

It had already declined to provide a copy of the report for academic purpose to a Right to Information (RTI) activist in November.

On top of it, it has additionally skipped a hearing before the chief information commissioner (CIC) on the issue on Tuesday.

Five people were killed in police firing on the crowd after the blast in the mosque on May 18, 2007. When the case came up for hearing before chief information commissioner M Ratan on Tuesday, RTI activist SQ Masood came up but there was no official from the general administration department.

Both the parties were sent a notice on January 2, 2016 by the commission asking to appear with documents specifying the status of the action which been taken on the RTI query.

With the government not appearing for the hearing, the chief information commissioner said he would soon give his order.

“Apart from asking for the ToR, I also asked for a copy. And if this is not possible, I requested for time so that I could read the report, which is permissible under provisions of the RTI Act,” said Masood, an RTI activist who had sought information on the terms of reference (ToR) of the panel on September 12.

While the query was sent to the chief minister’s office, it was then forwarded to the home department and then to general administration (law and order) department.