Times
of India: Panaji: Thursday, 28 May 2015.
Chief
minister Laxmikant Parsekar said vacancies of the Goa state information
commission (GSIC) will be filled in a month's time. The functioning of GSIC has
come to a standstill after posts of state information commissioners (SICs) and
chief information commissioner (CIC) fell vacant.
Parsekar said
the government would fill both vacancies in a one month's time. The government
has received a lot of flak for not expediting the process of filling vacancies
of SIC. The pendency of cases have increased tremendously after the functioning
of the SIC came to a complete halt earlier this year, when chief information
commissioner Leena Mehandale retired in January.
In fact,
since mid-2013, regular vacancies in various posts has affected the functioning
of the GSIC. The delay was caused after the proposed selection of Pandurang
Nadkarni became a cause of contention, as social activist Aires Rodrigues
objected to the same. Similarly, the selection of Pradeep Padwal also caused a
controversy, and Rodrigues took up the matter in court.
Since then,
the government has advertised the posts twice, but on both ocassions, it did
not reach its logical end.
RTI activists
allege that the state government has crippled the GSIC and its attempts to fill
posts by initiating selection process is just a facade.
The
government will have to fill both posts without further delay as Goa RTI Forum,
a group of RTI activists has moved court. It has filed a public interest
litigation (PIL) in high court to appoint retired high court judge as Goa
Lokayukta and chief state information commissioner (SIC), as a stop-gap
arrangement to reduce the pendency of cases.
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