Deccan Chronicle: Kerala: Tuesday, December 19, 2017.
RTI activists
have sent petitions to Governor P. Sathasivam urging him to ensure a fool-proof
selection.
The
appointment of information commissioners in the State Information Commission
(SIC) has run into rough weather again with several RTI activists petitioning
the governor against the alleged politicisation of the selection process. All
the five posts of information commissioners have been lying vacant for over a year as the
selection process initiated by the previous UDF government was marred by
controversies and the High Court had scrapped the selection. The present
selection process may also get caught up in legal tangles.
RTI activists
M.T. Thomas and M. Peter and D.B. Binu of RTI Kerala Federation have sent separate petitions to Governor P.
Sathasivam urging him to ensure a fool-proof selection. They cited Supreme Court and High Court orders insisting on the integrity of the
candidates. Sources at the chief
minister's office said that some 190
applications, including those of politicians and retired IAS and IPS officers, were received
against five vacancies. A committee comprising chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan,
law minister A.K. Balan and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has to select the final five and recommend the
names to the governor. There were allegations of CPM and CPI sharing the five
vacancies.
"The
selection of five members by the previous UDF government was initially opposed
by CPM leader V.S. Achuthana-ndan, who
was the then opposition leader and a member of the selection committee. He even
made a dissent note, following which the governor also sought
clarifications. Mr Ramesh
Chennithala may raise dissent in the
wake of the present allegations," sources pointed out. The functioning of
the SIC, headed by chief information commissioner Vinson M. Paul, has been hit due to the delay in filling the
vacancies. Over 15,000 petitions, mainly appeals, were pending and it would
take even a year for an appeal to be finalised.
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