Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, centre, during the Winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi.
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New Delhi: Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s charge that the list of candidates for Information Commissioners did not include adequate names from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC, EBC communities, government sources said that the Central government recommended one SC, one ST, one OBC, one minority representative, and one woman.
“Overall, five out of the eight recommended names (for Information Commissioners) were from disadvantaged sections. In light of these facts, Rahul Gandhi’s claims do not hold up,” government sources said.
On Wednesday, the three-member committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had a meeting to select the Chief Information Officer, the eight Information Commissioners and the Vigilance Commissioner. During the meeting, which went on for 88 minutes, DH had reported that Gandhi gave a dissent note that these communities which account for 90 per cent of the population are “inadequately” represented. Gandhi also said that this underrepresentation pointed to a “systemic pattern” in this as well previous instances.
Government sources, rebutting the charges, also pointed to the appointment of Heeralal Samariya in 2020 as Information Commissioner, and then in 2023, as the Chief Information Commissioner. Sources said that Samariya is “the first-ever CIC from the Scheduled Caste community.”
“The Central Information Commission was established in 2005. From 2005 to 2014, during the UPA government’s tenure, not a single person from the SC/ST community was appointed as either a member or the chairperson of the Commission. It was the NDA government that appointed Suresh Chandra in 2018, a member of the ST community, to the Commission,” government sources said.
On Tuesday, during his speech on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi had said that he usually does not have a say. “I sit in that room. It is a so-called democratic decision. On one side, PM Modi and Amit Shah and on the other side the LoP. I have no voice in that room. What they decide is what happens,” Gandhi had said, In February, Gandhi had filed a dissent in another three-member committee comprising of the same three leaders, formed to elected the Chief Election Commissioner.
The position of the Central Information Commission (CIC) has been lying vacant since September. Of the ten sanctioned posts of Information Commissioners, eight lie vacant.
As per Section 12 (3) of the Right to Information Act, the transparency officers are mandated to take up complaints and appeals filed under the RTI Act when the government or its departments do not provide adequate information. A three member committee comprising the prime minister as the chairperson, the Leader of Opposition as well as an union minister nominated by the prime minister, are tasked with appointing the information officers.