Babus face handicap in Hazare's formula for choosing info chief

Anil Singh, TNN, Oct 15, 2010

MUMBAI: If the Maharashtra government were to accept social activist Anna Hazare's suggestion for selecting information commissioners, just-retired bureaucrats would be at a handicap. Almost all information commissioners around the country are ex-bureuacrats, which RTI activists say is an unhealthy trend.

Hazare has written the CM that if a person has worked as a bureaucrat in a state, it would lead to direct conflict of interest if he\she becomes information commissioner in the same state. So, either he\she should apply in some other state or there should be some cooling off period.

According to Hazare, a list of objective criteria should be made. These should be finalised in consultation with the public. The government may, in advance, give weightage to each criteria. Some criteria could be number of years of experience of that person, arm's length principle (cooling off period or posting in another state), etc.

The government should screen all applications on the basis of these criteria and give marks to each individual against each critieria. All this information should be put on the web.

Hazare has also suggested a screening committee consisting of heads of certain institutions and individuals holding certain positions who shall be treated as ex-officio members of this committee. List of such institutions should be finalized in consultation with the public.

The committee should consist of members from law, science and technology, social service, legislature, health, management, journalism, mass media or administration, education, business etc.

Hazare was only summarising the recommendations that came of a joint meeting of RTI activists led by Aruna Roy and Arvind Kejriwal and officers of information commissioners at the Indian Institute of Public Administration on August 4 in New Delhi.

The recommendations say that the process for filling up an information commissioner's post should start a few months before it falls vacant and applications should be invited through an open advertisement in newspapers.

The meetings of screening committee should be open for public and media, who can only attend it but not intervene at any stage. The meetings shall also be video recorded.