Jasneet Bindra: Tue Aug 31 2010 ; Chandigarh:
Move follows request by SIC, who officiated as CIC for nearly 10 months
The Punjab government has sought an amendment to the RTI Act for appointment of officiating chief information commissioner (CIC).
The state has written to the Ministry of Personnel, Grievances and Pensions and the Ministry of Law and Justice, saying that amendment in the Act be carried out so that there is clarity regarding status, salary and allowances given to the officiating CIC.
At present, an officiating CIC is appointed through a routine executive order, which, besides being questionable in itself, creates complications regrading the status and remuneration, the state told both the ministries. However, in response to Punjab’s suggestion, Under-Secretary (RTI), Ministry of Personnel, Grievances and Pensions, R K Girdhar stated that the government was examining the suitability of an amendment.
The Punjab government took up the issue after state information commissioner (SIC) P K Verma, who officiated as the CIC for about ten months, stated that he was entitled to “salary, allowances and other terms and conditions of service laid down for the CIC under Section 16 of the RTI Act”.
He had written this in a letter dated, October 1, 2008, to the then secretary, IT, Punjab, Narinderjit Singh, in which he informed him that he has been officiating as the CIC since August 7, 2008.
When he got no response, he wrote to Punjab IT Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon in February 2009, asserting that even after five months, the orders of the government for his appointment have not been amended to allow his request based on the principle of “equal pay for equal work”.
The government then told Verma that his request could not be acceded to on the basis of a precedent set in case of acting chairman of the Human Rights Commission because in the RTI Act there was no provision for giving an SIC pay of a CIC, whereas in the Protection of Human Rights Act there was provision for appointment of an acting chairman.
However, Verma then clarified that there was no such provision in the Protection of Human Rights Act, too. “The absence of provision in the RTI Act cannot be given as a reason for not sanctioning me the pay and allowances of a CIC,” he wrote to the then Secretary, IT, in May 2009.
He added that accepting his request does not require an “enabling provision in the RTI Act, but only an executive decision based on equity and justice”.
Finally, after more than one and a half year of his raising the request, the government recently wrote to the Centre for an amendment.
Notably, Verma took over as officiating head of the information commission in August 2008, and the present CIC, R I Singh, joined on June 29, 2009, after retiring as the Chief Secretary of Punjab.
While the salary of the CIC comprises a fixed basic pay of Rs 90,000 plus allowances, all the SICs get basic pay of Rs 80,000 plus allowances. The functions of a CIC include general superintendence, direction and management of affairs of the commission and taking cognizance of appeals and complaints and their disposal, besides submission of annual report to the government, while an SIC takes cognizance of appeals and complaints and their disposal. Punjab has one of the biggest information commissions in the country with nine SICs and a CIC.
One link to RTI window
The Punjab government has started a one-stop link to all the department on its website to facilitate filing of RTI applications. Proactive disclosures, Acts, rules, notification, schemes and policies of the government, besides state and Central Acts and rules and district gazetteers have been put up on the website. A citizen can log on the government website www.punjabgovt.gov.in and click on the RTI link. The window that opens highlights a link www.punjabgovt.gov.in/punjabrti/index.html, which has required details of all the departments, making it easier for a citizen to file an RTI.
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