'Appoint 5 information commissioners now'

The Times of India; Hyderabad; Wednesday, May 04, 2011,

HYDERABAD: Right to Information activists on Tuesday demanded that the state government appoint five new information commissioners to fill in the vacancies at the state information commission. They said if the commissioners are not appointed soon, it would take four to five years to clear the existing backlog of cases. They have also demanded that the chief minister issue a statement regarding the abnormal delay in the appointment of information commissioners.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the United Forum for Right to Information Campaign, activists said all the judgments that the APSIC has been passing were legally invalid as the APSIC was not complete, working with just the chief information commissioner. Three information commissioners completed their tenure in November and since then the government has not appointed any IC.

RTI activists alleged the ignorance of the government that had resulted in piling up of 6,200 cases and the CIC, Jannat Hussain, has disposed off only 340 cases in the last three months. They said 60 applications have been made for the post but no action had been taken on them so far.