PDP may corner Govt over appointment of ICs

‘CE R&B being rewarded for allotment of Rs 10 Cr works without tenders’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 7: Even after failing to get a slot for her favourites in J&K State Accountability Commission (SAC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti seems to be planning to corner Omar Abdullah’s coalition government over the appointment of a retiring Chief Engineer as a member of J&K State Information Commission (SIC). Leakage of the names of probables by members of the coalition coordination committee is yet again leading to an embarrassing situation for the government.

Government’s wisdom of letting half-a-dozen politicians of National Conference (NC) and Congress judge names of probables for SIC in a meeting last week has come into question. J&K State Right to Information Act 2009 makes it the prerogative of a three-member panel to select the nominees and recommend them to Governor for consideration and warrants of appointment. While as Chief Minister happens to be the Chairman, one of the Cabinet Ministers to be nominated by him (in this case Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand) and Leader of the opposition/ single largest party in Legislative Assembly (in this case PDP President Mehbooba Mufti) are, by law, members of the selection committee.

On the recommendations of this panel, Governor had appointed former officer of central Revenue Service, Ghulam Rasool Sufi, as Chief Information Commissioner vide SRO-57 on February 11^th this year. Both the slots of State Information Commissioners have been lying vacant, leading to the disappointment of Mr Sufi as well as Governor. On occasion of the swearing-in ceremony of two members of SAC here last month, Governor had significantly deviated from a practice and delivered a speech to lay emphasis on immediate filing up of vacancies in all statutory bodies, particularly the two slots in SIC.

Meanwhile, one of the citizens in Jammu filed a writ petition in J&K High Court, seeking directions to the government for appointment of commissioners. After months of silence, General Administration fixed the meeting of selection committee on September 5^th. However, the political establishment sprang a surprise when it delegated the constitutional task to the coalition’s coordination committee. According to reports leaked to media, coordination committee zeoed in on a former professor of law from Jammu and a CE hailing from Ladakh. However, scheduled meeting of the selection committee was deferred for reasons not disclosed to public.

“Government is in its right to share the two slots between Kashmir and Jammu, between Muslims and non-Muslims or between NC and Congress. But, it’s none of its business to entrust the job of selection committee to a political committee that has no constitutional sanction”, a senior advocate of J&K High Court observed. He expressed serious apprehensions that the coalition partners “wants to accommodate favourites” and thus trivialize the constitutional bodies into “rehabilitation clubs of retired officials”.

Even as the name of a retired professor of law of University of Jammu has not drawn much of negative reaction, eyebrows are being raised on the Government’s intention of rehabilitating a retiring Chief Engineer during whose tenure as CE and SE, Department of R&B has reportedly allotted works worth more than Rs 10 Cr without calling of tenders.

All these works, initially approved for Rs 3 to 5 Lakh but finally raised to even Rs 50 Lakh and 1 Crore without administrative approval and technical sanction of competent authorities, have been allegedly doled out to political sleeping partners and favourites of politicians.

“This is neither an employment package nor a charity to be equally distributed among geographic regions. This is a constitutional body, a transparency watchdog where you require men to deliver. Credibility of many institutions, commissions and boards has been already eroded by different governments with the appointment of blue-eyed boys. If the coalition wants post-retirement rehabilitation for more of its loyal officials, it should dump them in other fields, not in SAC, SIC and State Vigilance Commission”, said a legal luminary, who has also served as a Minister in the past.

“Most of the officials and bureaucrats have their own lobbies. How do you expect them to do justice when you seek information or action against an SE who has functioned as Exen or AEE with a Chief Engineer?” asked he. On the other hand, officials of one lobby could be biased against those of rival lobbies if made judges or members of SAC or SIC. “Selection committee has got to be extremely judicious in such appointments. It should pick up men of eminence from different fields, as required by law. Otherwise, anybody could approach Governor with a caveat and cause embarrassment to the Government”, he added.

Knowledgeable sources revealed that Ms Mufti, who happens to be a member of the selection committee, was bracing up to corner the government vociferously over the appointment of political loyalists and faithful officers as State Information Commissioners. Contrary to her silence over rejection of her opinion during selection of Chairman and members of SAC, Ms Mufti is said to be planning a ruckus over “discrediting of institutions” by the coalition government ahead of the forthcoming session of Legislature.

Talking to KNS Mehbooba today said, “I’m not able to understand why the selection meetings are being postponed every now and then. It is unfortunate that the government is not taking sensitive institution like Information Commission serious. By doing so the government is doing injustice to the people who have lot of faith in these institutions.”

STAKEHOLDERS UPSET

Meanwhile, stake holders too have begun to express apprehensions with regard to delay in appointments of ICs and nomination of retired officials and bureaucrats. Convener of J&K RTI Movement, Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat issued the following statement to Press:

“The State Chief Information Commissioner or the State Information Commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and  experience in law , science and technology ,social service , management , journalism , mass media or administration and governance.

So it is crystal clear that the State RTI Act never says that an Information Commissioner or Chief Information Commissioner has to be a retired bureaucrat , top Government official etc , even a senior Lawyer or a Journalist can be a member (Commissioner) of J&K State Information Commission.

It is more than two and a half years when the new RTI law (JK RTI Act 2009) was enacted in J&K but it took Government two years to appoint Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and till date the Selection Committee is not able to meet and sit together to have consensus on appointment of two other Commissioners .

The selection committee meeting had to be cancelled on Monday as the Deputy CM Mr Tara Chand who is one of the members of the selection committee which consists of CM & leader of opposition was not available for the meeting. How can a Deputy Chief Minister do that when he knows the date &agenda of the meeting more than a week back ? It clearly indicates that Government is not serious to see RTI is implemented in letter & spirit in this corruption ridden state and State Information Commission (SIC) is made fully operational”.

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