Ratnakar Gaikwad is new state info chief

DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, June 07, 2012.

Five days after he retired as the state’s chief secretary, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to appoint Ratnakar Gaikwad as the chief information commissioner (CIC) of the state.

The post is lying vacant after the tenure of Vilas Patil ended almost eight months ago. Gaikwad was chosen over his seniors, including UC Sarangi, Ramesh Kumar and Subodh Kumar, for the post.

A three-member committee comprising chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Eknath Khadse chose Gaikwad from a list of seven applicants. The proposal has been sent to the Governor for the final nod as per the RTI Act. Others that had applied for the post included former BMC commissioner Subodh Kumar, additional chief secretaries UC Sarangi and Ramesh Kumar, information commissioners of Aurangabad and Amravati respectively DB Deshpande, Bhaskar Patil, and BN Waghmare.

The RTI activist fraternity welcomed the appointment of Gaikwad.

“The appointment of the chief was long over due. When we met the CM, his reason for not appointing anyone was that IAS officers looking for post-retirement jobs wanted some work and hence applied for the post of information commissioner. Thought Gaikwad has just retired, it looks like he has managed to convince him that he will be doing a good job of it,” said Narayan Varma of Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT). PCGT had taken a delegation of RTI activists to meet the CM as half of the posts of the commission were vacant.