Times of India: Patna: Sunday, December 14, 2014.
Bihar has two information commissioners while
smaller states like Haryana and Punjab have ten each. And, under the Right to
Information Act, there is less number of pending cases in these states compared
to 30,000 in Bihar.
There are five commissioners in Arunachal Pradesh,
nine in Andhra Pradesh, five in Gujarat, six in Madhya Pradesh, seven in
Maharashtra, five in Tamil Nadu, five each in Kerala and Karnataka, six in
Uttarakhand and 10 in UP, said leader of opposition in Bihar assembly Nand
Kishore Yadav on Saturday. A member of the selection committee headed by the
chief minister, Yadav said the decision on appointment of new chief information
commissioner on Friday had to be postponed due to the ignorance on the part of
CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was himself not aware of the name recommended for
appointment. He pleaded his ignorance about the candidature of former chief
secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha.
Yadav said only two commissioners were disposing
of the pending cases whose numbers were rising everyday. There were 2,494 cases
in 2012, 9,100 in 2013 and the number rose to 29,875 till September 30, 2014.
The government, on May 8, 2005, had agreed to create three posts and, on August
30, 2007, added two more posts of information commissioner. However, it
appointed only three commissioners. Bihar can appoint ten commissioners, but it
never sanctioned more than three posts.
The Patna high court had also asked the state
government to appoint five commissioners, but it did not honour the HC
directive, he said. On the contrary, the government abolished two posts in July
this year, Yadav added. The government is not appointing more commissioners as
it wants to make the commission ineffective to prevent disclosure of
irregularities and scams through the RTI. The two commissioners are not even
able to study the files related to pending cases, he said.
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