Hindustan
Times: Chandigarh: Wednesday, 02 December 2015.
Ahead of the
Punjab assembly polls, the state information commission, too, seems to gaining
political hues.
The ruling
Akali Dal’s ex-netas, who have been appointed as state information
commissioners, will now hear and decide cases seeking information from district
administration and police department of their home turf, as per the new roster
issued by chief information commissioner (CIC) Swaran Singh Channi.
What’s more,
the changes in the roster have come a week after it was uploaded on
commission’s website on September 8. The new roster, uploaded on September 16,
comes into effect from September 8.
What has
changed between the two rosters is that three information commissioners all
former Akali leaders have been given their home districts. In the September 8
roster, RTI commissioner Ravinder Singh Nagi was given deputy
commissioner/sub-division and tehsil offices of Rupnagar division and police
offices of Patiala revenue division among 10 departments allotted to him. The
fresh order has given Nagi, whose area of influence is Gurdaspur,
DC/sub-division/ tehsil offices of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot and police
offices of Gurdaspur, Batala, Pathankot and Fatehgarh Sahib.
While the
September 8 roster took care not to allot his own area Patiala to RTI
commissioner Harinder Pal Singh Mann, it was overturned in the fresh document.
Earlier, he was allotted offices of department of rural development and
panchayats, except Patiala and Rupnagar division, and police offices of
Rupnagar revenue division. The new roster gave him jurisdiction over
DC/subordinate offices of Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala and Fatehgarh Sahib and
police offices of Patiala, Rupnagar, Mohali, Sangrur and Barnala.
Similarly,
Nirdharak Singh Brar, whose area of influence as an Akali leader was Moga, has
been allotted DC/sub-division/ tehsil offices of Ferozepur division, including
Moga, Muktsar and Fazilka and police offices in Ferozepur division that includes
Moga, Muktsar and Fazilka.
In his latest
order on November 2, the CIC has furnished names of commissioners who would
visit the districts for review and monitoring of the RTI Act. Here too,
Ravinder Nagi gets Gurdaspur, Harinder Pal Patiala and Nirdharak Brar Moga.
When asked,
Channi said there was no bar on giving home districts to information
commissioners. “Is there a law that prohibits it,” he asked. On the change in
the roster within one week, he said: “I hold a statuary position and am not
answerable to the media for my decisions.”
Interestingly,
the CIC has made no changes in departments under him, which comprise most
important departments, including Raj Bhawan, high court, CM office, council of
ministers, chief secretary, home affairs and Director general of police office
and all state police headquarters and revenue and police offices of Ludhiana
district, where Channi had a long stint as DC.
If compared
to rosters of Punjab Information Commission in the previous years dated August
6, 2013 and January 13, 2014 neither has any former political leader appointed
as information commissioner been given his home district nor the CIC kept all
important departments to himself.
Former chief
information commissioner Ramesh Inder Singh says the CIC has absolute
discretion to decide allocation of departments. “As far as legality of
allocation is concerned, the CIC has absolute powers. When it comes to
propriety, it is a question of opinion and interpretation,” he said.
Conflict
of interest
Whether such
appointments raise the question of conflict of interest, RTI activist HS Hundal
says he had to contest a recent order of the information commission to allot
cases pertaining to Punjab Small Industries Corporation to information
commissioner Yashvir Mahajan, a former MD of the corporation. “The cases were
then transferred to some other commissioner. Similarly, the allotment of home
districts to commissioners will raise question of conflict of interest if they
favour government departments of their own districts in their orders,” he
added.
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