RTI activist who complained against K’taka CM in MUDA scam now faces criminal charger

An RTI activist, Snehamayi Krishna, who is one of the complainants against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment scam, is now facing criminal charges.

Hyderabad: The Congress governments in Karnataka and Telangana make tall claims of delivering transparent governance and being accountable to people. But when activists question about irregularities, those activists are being intimidated and cases booked against them. An RTI activist, Snehamayi Krishna, who is one of the complainants against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment scam, is now facing criminal charges. A woman lodged a complaint at Nanjangud police station on August 21, and an FIR was registered on the same day. The complainant alleged that Krishna, along with three others had attempted to assault her, besides threatened to kill her. Krishna has denied the allegations and said it was a “conspiracy” to silence his activism.

If this was the case in Karnataka, the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner posts are vacant since long in Telangana, with RTI activists here also alleging that information was being withheld from them. As for the posts, the previous government had issued a notification and assured that the posts would be filled up. Forum for Good Governance on Monday appealed to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to fill up the posts at the earliest.

---

It has been more than a year and the assurance before the High Court was yet to be materialized. Due to absence of CIC and ICs, close to 15,000 appeals were pending with the Information Commission, Forum for Good Governance president M Padmanabha Reddy said in the letter. He further said due to non-functioning of the Commission at many places the Public Information Officers (PIO) was not sharing any information to the people.