NDTV: New Delhi: Tuesday, November 04, 2014.
Leader of
Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has reportedly been inducted into the
three-member selection committee which will select the Chief Information
Commissioner.
As per file
notings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who heads the panel, has nominated
Defence Minister Arun Jaitely, besides Mr Kharge, to the committee.
The decision
to include Mr Kharge has reportedly been taken on the advice of the Law
Ministry as there was lack of clarity on the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.
The Right To
Information or RTI Act requires that selection of the Chief Information
Commissioner be done by a three-member panel comprising the Prime Minister, who
shall be the Chairperson of the committee, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
and a Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
"For the
purposes of removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that where the Leader of
Opposition in the House of the People has not been recognised as such, the
Leader of the single largest group in opposition of the Government in the House
of the People shall be deemed to be the Leader of Opposition," the Act
says.
The file
notings accessed by activist Commodore (Retired) Lokesh Batra show that the Lok
Sabha Secretariat had conveyed to the Department of Personnel & Training on
June 19, 2014, that "as on date, there is no Leader of Opposition in Lok
Sabha. Indian National Congress with a strength of 44 members is, however, the
single largest party in opposition to the Government in Lok Sabha".
"As per
the information received from the party, Mallikarjun Kharge is the Leader of
Indian National Congress in Lok Sabha which is the single largest party in
opposition in Lok Sabha."
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