Transparency watchdog CIC, which is headless for over eight months, is now working without its Secretary too as the government has approved premature repatriation of T Y Das to her parent cadre.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the premature repatriation of Das, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training said, without mentioning the reason.
Das, a 1982-batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, was appointed Secretary in Central Information Commission (CIC) in November 2012. She was then appointed in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary.
The post of Chief Information Commissioner has been lying vacant for over eight months now. Former IB chief Rajiv Mathur completed his tenure as Chief Information Commissioner on August 22, last year. At present, there are seven Information Commissioners working in the CIC against its sanctioned strength of ten.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi had yesterday questioned the delay in appointments of chiefs of CIC, CVC and Lokpal. The Right to Information Act, 2005, which ensures time bound reply to citizens query on governance matters, was brought by the Congress-led UPA government.
A Parliamentary Committee had in its report tabled in Parliament late last month asked the government to fill without further delay vacant posts in the CIC.
The vacancies are to a large extent, responsible for the increasing pendency of cases in the Commission, the report had said. There were 37,924 pending cases in the CIC as on March 13, 2015. Many RTI activists have also questioned the delay in appointments in the CIC.
