Calcutta Telegraph: New Delhi: Sunday, May 24, 2015.
Selection
committees headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not arrive at a
decision on the appointment of chiefs for the Central Information Commission
(CIC) and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) at its meeting Saturday and
decided to meet again.
The Union
minister of state for personnel, Jitender Singh, said some more information and
details were being studied.
“Therefore,
it was decided that another meeting will be called next week at a
mutually-convenient date,” Singh told PTI after the meeting.
Saturday’s
meeting was convened at the Prime Minister's residence and was attended by Home
Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Leader of Congress party
in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Jitendra Singh and senior officials of the
Prime Minister's Office.
The selection
panels were also to finalise the names of Information Commissioners in CIC and
Vigilance Commissioners in CVC, official sources said.
On May 6,
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had questioned
the delay in appointments of chiefs of CIC, CVC and Lokpal. The Right to
Information Act, 2005, which ensures time bound reply to citizens query on
governance matters, was brought by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
government.
The CIC, which
is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed against government
departments or public authorities by information seekers under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act, has been working without its chief for over nine months.
Rajiv
Mathur's term as Chief Information Commissioner ended on August 22, 2014.
Besides, posts of three Information Commissioners are vacant.
There are 203
applicants for the post of the Chief Information Commissioner and 553 for the
post of Information Commissioners at the transparency panel. All the seven
existing Information Commissioners have applied for the post of CIC.
Under the RTI
Act, the CIC has one chief and ten Information Commissioners.
There are
about 39,565 pending cases in the CIC as on date. Many RTI activists have also
questioned the delay in appointments in the CIC.
In the CVC,
Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar and Vigilance Commissioner J.M.
Garg had completed their term on September 28 and September 7, last year,
respectively.
The CVC is
headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner and has two Commissioners. About 130
applications have been received for the posts of CVC and Vigilance
Commissioners.