UF-RTI’s plea to CM on selection of ICs

Hyderabad: The city-based United Forum for RTI Campaign (UF-RTI) has urged Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to immediately initiate steps to fill up the posts of four Information Commissioners (ICs) the vacancies for which have arisen following their disqualification by the High Court. The Court directed the State government on September 12 to complete the recruitment within six weeks.

UF-RTI has also put forth some suggestions to make the recruitment process foolproof by following the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Namit Sharma case. In a letter to the Chief Minister, UF-RTI Convener B.Ramakrishnam Raju, D Rakesh Reddy, NCPRI, M Rajendra Prasad, MVF, Naseer Siddique, COVA, S Srinivas Reddy, APSA, urged the Chief Minister to consider their proposals in right earnest in the best interests of the society. The letter requested an immediate notification of the vacancies. The State government should set up a small search committee to shortlist 10 or 15 applications from the responses to the notification.

The existing high-level committee on RTI can be authorized to select an appropriate number of candidates from the list submitted by the search committee. As the RTI Act is all about transparency and accountability in public administration, the process of selection of Information Commissioners should be done with utmost transparency and accountability, the UF-RTI stated.

It also urged the State government to intimate the leader of the opposition, who is also on the committee, well in time so he will be available at the selection committee meeting. Since the Chief Minister could be very busy with his various functions, the process of recruitment of Information Commission can be entrusted to the Chief Secretary, the letter added.