Hindustan Times: Bhopal: Monday, September 11, 2017.
When
12th-pass jobless Dinesh Kumar Maheshwari applied for the coveted post of
information commissioner in Madhya Pradesh in January this year, he was merely
19 years old. Yet, he is confident of doing justice to the post, if he gets it.
But then he
has to compete with 116 others, including judges, senior IAS and IPS officers
and lawyers who have applied for the two posts of information commissioners in
the state.
When asked
what he knew about the job profile, Maheshwari said, “It is only after I get
the job that I will come to know what type of work I will be required to do.
What I know is, it is related to RTI as to how information should be given
under the RTI Act.”
Maheshwari,
who belongs to Shajapur and is staying in Bhopal pursuing a pathology test
course, said there was no qualification required for the post. Only certain
“descriptions” were required to be mentioned which “I did on the form”.
Another
applicant Mahendra Maheshwari from Sehore is a graduate and labourer. He told
HT that he chanced upon an ad for the post and applied.
On the
eligibility and qualification for the job, he said, “Since I am preparing for
various government jobs I have good deal of knowledge on law, media, RTI,
governance etc. I have good intention and wish to serve the country.”
Brijesh Sen
from Sehore and Vishal Gujarati from Agar Malwa are two other applicants with
educational qualification of higher secondary. While Vishal has not mentioned
his occupation, Brijesh is a labourer, as per information obtained by RTI
activist Ajay Dubey.
The last date
for submitting the application was January 10.
As per Right
to Information Act, chief information commissioner and 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 governance.
As per RTI
Act, a committee comprising chief minister, leader opposition and a minister
nominated by the CM recommends selection of the state CIC and information
commissioners. The committee is yet to meet to take its decision on the
applications. Recently, leader opposition leader Ajay Singh of Congress warned
that he would not take a part in the meeting if the parliamentary affairs
minister Narottam Mishra is a part of the committee.
Activist Ajay
Dubey said the lacunae in the RTI act should be plugged to rule out appointment
of those less qualified. Unfortunately, he said, there were many applicants who
didn’t have much knowledge about RTI and they had hardly worked in the field of
RTI.
However,
information commissioner Aatmdeep said ‘persons of eminence’ was enough to
carry the implied meaning as to who should be appointed to the post.
“The post of
information commissioner is not a mundane job,” he said, adding that
undeserving candidates would be filtered in the process.
Aatmdeep
noted that there have hardly any cases of undeserving persons being appointed
as information commissioners.
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