Sunday, August 30, 2015

State names its info commissioners

Times of India: Panaji: Sunday, August 30, 2015.
The state government has finalized the name of former additional president of the Goa state administrative tribunal, south district, Prashant Tendulkar, as the new chief information commissioner (CIC). Tendulkar served at the tribunal from September 20, 2013 to February 28, 2015.
The government has also finalized senior public prosecutor, Pratima Vernekar, and lawyer, social activist, writer, and TV host, Juino D'Souza, as the new state information commissioners.
The names were finalized by the three-member committee headed by chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar. Other panel members are deputy CM Francis D'Souza and opposition leader Pratapsingh Rane. Sources said the decisions were unanimous, and the file finalizing the names of the three information commissioners was signed by Parsekar on Saturday evening.
The decision follows the high court of Bombay at Goa ordering the state, last week, to file an affidavit within two weeks, in a writ petition seeking the appointment of the Goa Lokayukta and information commissioners. The petition has been filed by the Goa RTI Forum and others.
The CIC post has been vacant since January this year, after Leena Mehendale's term got over. The retired IAS officer and former Maharashtra additional chief secretary was selected and sworn in as CIC by then governor, B V Wanchoo, in October 2013 after the government announced the shortlisted names for CIC and SICs in July of that year.
When the first CIC, A Venkatratnam, retired in March 2009, the appointment of M S Keny as CIC was made seven months later, in October 2009, even though the post of SIC was filled instantly. But when SIC Afonso Araujo, appointed on March 4, 2009, retired in September 2010 there was no attempt to fill the post till 2012.