A total of 39 people have submitted their applications for the post of the State chief information commissioner. Of these applicants, three have not stated any of the expertise required for eligibility for the CIC’s post while 14 are from the field of law, five from journalism, nine from social service sector, seven with administrative expertise and one with experience in management. This was revealed by RTI activist Nadim Uddin who had sought information about applicants for the post of CIC under the Right To Information Act.
In a Press release issued on Monday, Kashipur resident Uddin states, “In response to my application under the RTI Act, the General Administration department provided me 512 pages comprising copies of 39 applications and details of the applicants prepared by the department. According to the information provided, out of the 39 applicant, 15 are from Dehradun, four from Almora, three each from Haridwar, Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar, two each from Nainital and Pauri, while seven are from outside Uttarakhand including four from Delhi and three from Uttar Pradesh. According to the RTI Act Section 15(5) the fields in which an applicant for the post of State CIC needs to have considerable knowledge and experience include law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, public communication medium and administration. However, three of the applications have no mention of the applicants being experienced in any of these fields while 14 are from the field of law, five from journalism, nine from social service sector, seven with administrative expertise and one with experience in management.”
The applicants for the post of Uttarakhand CIC include additional chief secretary S Raju, former chief secretary N Ravi Shankar, former principal secretary Sunil Kumar Mattu, former DG Ordinance Factories Shashidhar Dimri, Col (retd) Rajiv Kumar Singh and Uttarakhand Public Service Commission finance controller Pradeep Kumar Goyal from the field of administration. Applicants with experience in the field of law include State information commissioner Rajendra Kotiyal, State Trade Tax Tribunal chairman Krishan Datt Bhatt, lok Sabha secretariat additional secretary Devendra Singh, deputy advocate general Vinod Kumar Gemini, RTI and law expert Nadim Uddin apart from advocates practicing in the High Court and district courts. Applicants from the field of journalism include Jai Singh Rawat, Deepak Dwivedi, Himanshu Bahuguna, Archana Agrawal and Himanshu Bhushan Ghildiyal. Applicants from the social service sector include Mamta Gupta, Dan Singh Bisht, Kevalanand Sati, Kavindra Pant, Ved Prakash Sharma, Prakash Chandra Pant, Sujan Singh Negi, Chandra Singh Gwal and Praful Kumar Pant whereas Vinod Kumar is the sole applicant from the management sector. When it comes to the educational qualifications of the 39 applicants, two are PhDs, three with llM, 15 with llB, seven with MA, one each with MPhil, MBA, MTech, BE and BPEd, two each with BTech and MSc and three graduate degree holders.