Times of India: Ahmedabad: Tuesday, March 11, 2014.
Despite two
new information commissioners being handing out appointment orders to join the
state information commission on February 7, the offices still lie vacant.
The state
government was quick to inform the Gujarat high court of the appointment of Shridevi
Shukla and Bhagwanji Panchasara to the two posts. However, sources in the
commission claim that the formal ceremony of appointment, which is to be
presided by the governor is pending.
With the
election code of conduct in place, officials are wondering if the appointment
would be delayed by another two months. For the first time, the state
government has chosen two additional information commissioners (AICs) who are
non-IAS officers, with one being a retired academician. It may be recalled
that, earlier in January, the HC had ordered the state government to fill the
vacant posts of two AICs within a month.
Shukla
retired as joint secretary of the industries and mines department. Sources in
the general administration department (GAD) claim that the chief minister
Narendra Modi had recommended her name for the post. The other AIC, Panchasara,
is a retired professor from a college in Navsari.
In January, a
bench of the Gujarat high court had asked the state government to fill, within
a month, two vacant posts of AICs in the chief information commissioner's (CIC)
office at Gandhinagar. The bench consisting of Chief Justice Bhaskar
Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala gave the order in response to a PIL
filed by Praful Desai, a Vadodara-based senior citizen who had appeared in
court as party in person.
Desai runs an
NGO, Jagte Raho. In 2012, he had filed a PIL in which he had complained that
though RTI appeals had been piling up in the office of the CIC, the state
government had not filled the statutory posts of AIC. Earlier, it was on August
12, 2012, that the high court had first asked the state government to
immediately appoint two AICs.
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