The State Government’s recent advertisement for appointment of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) without finalising appointment of Information Commissioners has been dubbed as a hush-hush operation lacking transparency.
RTI activist Pradip Pradhan alleged that the Government has been maintaining secrecy in the appointment of the Information Commissioner by denying information sought under the RTI Act.
“Though 10 RTI applications have been submitted to get the list of candidates who applied for post, the Government was hesitant to disclose the names under RTI Act citing useless ground,” he lamented. Pradhan, however, urged that the appointment of Information Commissioners and CIC should be completed without further delay.
“Whoever have been selected through secretive procedure adopted by the Odisha bureaucracy should be appointed at the earliest to dispose the cases pending in thousands in the Commission and render justice to the citizens. The Government is making unnecessary delay in appointment with an intention to cover up corrupt practice which has been exposed by many people in different circles and with ulterior motive to postpone the appointment for unknown period,” he said.
It may be reminded that earlier leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, who is a member of the Selection Committee, had resented lack of transparency in Government procedure of appointment of Information Commissioner.