Two information commission posts lying vacant for a year -Governance Now

Two information commission posts lying vacant for a year

RTI activist writes to government over delay in appointments of Information Commissioners and shrinking transparency

GN Bureau | September 4, 2017

#RTI #information commissioners #CIC #DoPT

Two positions of information commissioners are lying vacant for a year, said an RTI activist who pointed out that there is delay in appointment despite the huge pendency in cases.

The posts fell vacant after the retirement of ICs Basant Seth on February 17 and MA Khan Yusufi on December 31, 2016.

Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra, an RTI activist from Noida on September 2 wrote an open letter to Dr Jitendra Singh, minister of state (independent incharge) Prime Minister Office and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions citing the appointment and transparency issues with the CIC.

“Sadly, even after one year of advertising the two posts of ICs in CIC, the government has failed to select and fill these posts while an RTI revealed that 225 persons have applied for these two posts,” writes Batra.

The commission has a chief information commissioner and ten information commissioners (ICs). Each commissioner is allocated the responsibility of handling queries from more than a dozen departments and ministries. They can summon officials, inspect documents, receive evidence on affidavits, ask for any public record or copies from any court or government office, initiate an inquiry and even penalise the PIO.

The RTI activist mentions about 2015 Delhi High Court order in connection with delay in appointments. The court observed, “We are of the view that it is necessary for the court to monitor the steps that are being taken (by government) for filling up the vacancies in question so as to ensure that all the vacancies are filled up within timeframe.”

“The pendency in CIC still stands at 24,338 cases and that too when commission has been returning back about 35-40 percent cases due to faulty documentation,” writes Batra.

Since June the data of cases being returned by the commission is not showing on CIC’s website. “It is not only frustrating but also defeating the objectives of “Transparency Law” where law-makers had made provision for furnishing information within 30 days of RTI request,” says the activist.

He writes, “Unlike many years when information on appointment of ICs, was easily shared with citizens under the RTI Act, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has suddenly decided to become opaque, calling this information as ‘cabinet papers’ by overturning its own First Appellate Authority’ (FAA) past order and even ignoring CIC order.”

Comments

Other News

How social media is reshaping elections

Since Brazil’s return to direct presidential elections in 1985, no candidate who finished second in the first round of polling had ever won the presidency. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, now 81, has just done it. What explains the comeback, and what changed in Brazilian politics to make it possi

Cabinet approves Dearness Allowance, Dearness Relief

The union cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2026 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rates of 6

Cyclone Arnab strikes Andhra as warming oceans amplify storm risks

Cyclone Arnab made landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts in the early hours of Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 125–135 kmph and gusts reaching 150 kmph. Its rapid intensification has raised concerns about how warmer oceans, global warmin

Counting matters but which ones?

The first instinct of public policy is to count. Its harder task is to count what counts. We have become remarkably good at measuring the reach of the welfare state vis-à-vis beneficiaries covered, rupees transferred, houses built, connections installed and services delivered. But some of the most

Inching closer to a trade deal with America

The cooperation between India and the United States goes back quite a time. We need to relegate that era to the backburner when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited US in the times of president Dwight Eisenhower and called the American let-off of 10 million dollars in defence aid to Pakistan as a “gun w

Manch vs Musk: Forty people and a foreign billionaire

About forty people walked the roundabout on Teen Murti Marg to the gate of Chanakyapuri police station, a distance you could cover in under a minute, on Friday to protest against Elon Musk’s Starlink. The walk was called by the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. Nobody joined them on the way, and nobody seeme