CIC yet to ask for ICs despite vacancies: RTI

NEW DELHI: Amid concerns over the increasing vacancies in CIC, an RTI has revealed that there has been no correspondence between the information watchdog and the department of personnel and training over appointment of information commissioners. The DoPT is the agency which is charged with the appointment of information commissioners.

"It is a matter of concern that unlike in the past, the CIC has made no formal request to the government for appointment of information commissioners," said Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra, RTI activist who filed the query.

Batra, who has previously written to the minister of state, DoPT, Jitendra Singh, on the lack of transparency in the appointment of ICs, cites the recent vacancies in the CIC as worrying. "Three information commissioners - Yusuf Khan, Basant Seth and Sharat Sabharwal - have already completed their tenures, with the fourth, Manjula Parashar, set to finish hers in January 2018. This is a matter of concern," added Batra.

The RTI had asked for correspondence between the DoPT and CIC on the appointment of information commissioners. The reply by JS (administra-tion), S P Beck, says: "The said subject has not been dealt in any file." It goes on to say that the only communication has been the office order on demitting the office by the retiring information commissioners, which was marked to DoPT.