Former Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Jawed Usmani, who was sworn in as new State Chief Information Commissioner on Tuesday, asserted for strengthening the RTI Act in Uttar Pradesh and stressed on accountability and transparency. He also announced that a training programme would be launched for the Public Information Officers (PIOs) to aware them about the importance of the Act.
Usmani took the oath at the Raj Bhawan. Governor Ram Naik administered the oath in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, several ministers and senior bureaucrats. Talking to reporters Usmani said that he felt honoured in getting this constitutional post. “RTI keeps a balance between the administration and the public. It maintains transparency in government working and make officials accountable for their deeds.” he said. “My main focus will be to reduce pending cases and impart information to the people without any bias and prejudice,” he said.
Usmani was appointed CIC of UP in November 10 2014 but he could not took the oath as he got his VRS from the IAS service on Monday. Usmani was chairman of the Revenue Board after being removed from the chief secretary’s post. Initially, Raj Bhawan had objected on his appointment as his application did not carry the vigilance report. Usmani was questioned by CBI during into the coal scam. The multi-crore scam had hit the UPA II government as the then prime minister Manmohan Singh was handling the coal portfolio between 2004 and 2007, Usmani, as the joint secretary in the PMO, handled the coal auction related files. Usmani took over as the chief secretary a few months after the SP came back to power and Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister in March 2012.
A 1978 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Usmani holds MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and MSc degree in Social Policy and Planning from the london School of Economics. He was a senior advisor to the Executive Director at the World Bank in Washington DC and was a Minister of Economic Cooperation at the Embassy of India in Nepal.