Indian
Express: Mumbai: Sunday, 12 July 2015.
The selection
process of the state information commissioners (SIC) in Maharashtra appears to
be shrouded in mystery as the high-powered committee meant to select them seems
to be working in a highly ad hoc manner.
Minutes of
the meeting of the high-powered committee, accessed by The Indian Express under
the Right To Information Act from the General Administration Department (GAD)
of Mantralaya, shows there was hardly any discussions involved in the process
of appointment of SICs.
Headed by the
chief minister, the committee comprises the leader of Opposition in the state
and a senior minister from the cabinet.
Applications
for the post of SIC are received by the GAD and subsequently placed before the
committee.
The RTI Act
specifies that SICs “shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide
knowledge and experience in law, or science and technology, or social service,
or management, or journalism, or mass media or administration and governance.”
The state has
six SICs functioning under a chief information commissioner.
Starting from
2005, the high-powered committee has met seven times in 10 years to select
information commissioners.
From 2005-08,
it met on an yearly basis, but meetings have been irregular since then.
Post 2008,
the committee met in 2010 and then in 2012.
It met once
in 2014 and then in 2015 to select SICs. The delay in meeting had led to many
SIC benches being vacant for long periods.
The minutes
of these meetings, however, throw no light on the process adopted before selecting
the SICs.
Barring those
of 2014 and 2015, the minutes did not even have any mention of the number of
applications put before the committee.
Interestingly,
each of these minutes consisted of only one page.
The 2014
minutes, which has the signatures of the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan,
deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and the then leader of opposition Eknath
Khadse, noted that they had received 103 applications and it was necessary to
select people of eminence from the field of the law, administration, journalism
etc.
Similarly,
the first high-powered committee meeting since the BJP government took over
noted that around 100 applications were put before them.
This
committee, which was chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, was also
attended by Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse and the leader of Opposition
Radhkrushna Vikhe Patil.
It was
decided that only candidates who were able to serve for three or more years
would henceforth be selected as SICs.
Also, the
minutes had a brief note justifying the selection of Dattatreya Bansod as the
SIC of Amravati bench.
Bansod, it
was noted, was the former divisional commissioner of Amravati and had 34 years
of experience in various fields of administration.
While the
SICs are supposed to be the guardians of transparency, the apparent ad hoc
manner in which they are selected has been pointed out on numerous occasions.
In the past, activist Anna Hazare had asked for a selection committee which
would invite and scrutinise applications for selections of SIC.
Activist
Vijay Kumbhar, who had in the past pointed out the apparent irregularities in
the process, said that the method adopted by the government was illegal.
“The process
smacks of nepotism and even after the change of government, nothing much has
changed,” he said.
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