Senior journalist Ulchala Hariprasada Reddy was on Tuesday appointed as the new Right to Information Commissioner in the Andhra Pradesh State Right to Information Commission.
The state government finalized the appointment of Hariprasad along with that of senior advocate Kakarla Channa Reddy as the RTI commissioners at a meeting convened by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at the state secretariat on Tuesday.
The names were sent to Raj Bhavan for the approval from Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichandan, who is expected to issue the notification to this effect by evening.
The appointment of the two RTI Commissioners follows a recent direction from the state high court which expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in the appointment of a full-fledged Commission.
Interestingly, Hariprasad, a postgraduate from Hyderabad Central University, has been working for the last two decades with Eenadu Telugu daily, which is generally considered to be anti-Jagan Mohan Reddy and pro-Telugu Desam Party.
What is more important is that he has been on the editorial board of Eenadu, which finalizes the articles related to the newspaper policy.
That way, it is a recognition to Hariprasad’s impartial attitude despite being on the Eenadu editorial board. Right from the beginning, he has been maintaining good relations with the YSR Congress party leadership.
Hariprasad is incidentally the second journalist from Eenadu group to get the coveted RTI Commissioner post.
In the past, Dileep Reddy, who had a long stint in Eenadu, was made the RTI Commissioner during the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy regime, though YSR, too, used to consider Eenadu as his enemy.
