Times
of India: Chennai: Monday, 27 April 2015.
With the present
State Chief Information Commissioner (SCIC) K S Sripathi's term coming to an
end on Monday, RTI campaigners have urged the state government to appoint an
eminent person who is not a retired bureaucrat and affiliated to any political
party.
The 1977 batch
IAS officer, who have made headlines in the recent past for wrong reasons, will
have to demit office as RTI rules do not allow a SCIC to hold office beyond the
age of 65. In 2010, the previous DMK government appointed him as the SCIC
despite several protests from RTI activists.
"RTI Act
is meant for transparency and accountability and, therefore, at least the new
SCIC should be appointed in a transparent manner," said Siva Elango, an
RTI activist, who was arrested for refusing to stand during a hearing at Tamil
Nadu State Information Commission headquarters in Teynampet.
RTI rules say
that information commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life,
with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social
service, management, journalism, mass media, or administration and government.
However, activists said that successive governments in Tamil Nadu have
appointed their political nominees and retired bureaucrats who favoured them
during their services as information commissioners.
Section 15
(6) of the RTI Act says a SCIC should not be an MP or MLA, connected with any
political party, carrying on any business or pursuing any profession. However,
the AIADMK government in 2012 appointed five state information commissioners,
including former AIADMK MP V Saroja, former AIADMK women wing joint secretary B
Neelambikai and retired police officer Christopher Nelson.
"The
government considers top babus for the transparency panel because of its vested
interests. The retired bureaucrat who gives favours to the ruling parties gets
this post as a post-retirement incentive," said Shailesh Gandhi, a noted
RTI activist from Mumbai who was appointed to the Central Information
Commission in 2008.
When
contacted, Sripathi was unavailable to comment. But a source in the Tamil Nadu
State Information Commission said he was unable to do much mainly because of
limited staff and funds.
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