Letter to SIC: Congress demands dismissal of minister

[karira]

As reported in thehindu.com on 21 October 2008:
The Hindu News Update Service

Letter to SIC: Congress demands dismissal of minister

Bhopal (PTI): Congress on Tuesday demanded the dismissal of a Madhya Pradesh government minister for allegedly writing a letter of recommendation to the State Information Commission (SIC), which according to the party leads to a contempt of the body.

The Congress took strong objection to state Technical Education and Narmada Valley Development Minister Nagendra Singh supposedly writing to state Chief Information Commissioner P P Tiwari, recommending that information be provided to one of his supporters under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

A supporter of the minister, Awdhesh Singh, had sought information under RTI from the Water Resources Department in Satna district and was denied the same following which he had petitioned the first and second appeal to officials at Rewa and Bhopal respectively, party spokesperson Arvind Malviya said.

Later, the minister wrote a letter to Tiwari on July 8 stating that Singh be given the information, Malviya said providing copies of the letter to mediapersons.

The Congress said the minister was not empowered to write any recommendation letter to the state CIC as it amounts to contempt of the body, which has the powers of a civil court and demanded his dismissal from the government.

When asked about the issue Tiwari said, "So far I have not seen the letter. If it was written by any minister then certainly it is not justified."

"No public official or minister has any right to intervene in the job of the Information Commission, he said.