Sunday, May 24, 2015

PM-led panels fail to agree on heads for CIC and CVC, to meet again

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.