Reported by Dailypioneer.com on 28 July 2012
Naveen urged to make SIC appointment transparent

The civil society members have urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to follow a transparent process in appointment of the State Information Commissioner (SIC).

In a letter to the Chief Minister, they have rued delayed and lingering hearings, low disposal rate and pendency of a huge backlog of cases which they attributed to disheartening performances of the Chief State Information commissioner and the State Information Commissioner.

Referring to the Supreme Court observation on April 20 last, that the State Information Commissioners were being selected in a non-transparent manner, they urged Patnaik to openly invite applications from among the wider public so that all eligible persons can participate in the appointment. They suggested that the details of applications to be received in response and the grounds of rejection of the candidates should be web-hosted.

“So far, nobody in the State knows when and how the Selection Committee, constituted as per the RTI Act, will undertake its crucial exercise for selecting the next State Information Commissioner. If we go by the trends observed in the past, it so happens that the persons to be appointed as Commissioners would be already chosen by a coterie of persons through back-channel methods and the three-member Selection Committee specified in Section 15(3) of RTI Act, would merely and formally sit, as if to observe a ritual, to give its nod to the choice made earlier. All this renders the selection of Information Commissioners a politically motivated and secretive process rather than a merit-driven and transparent exercise enjoined upon by the RTI Act,” they said and demanded a transparent and inclusive process for selection.

The members included scribe Rabi Das, Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan State convener Pradip Pradhan, Transparency International board member Biswajit Mohanty, social activist Ashok Kumar Paikaray, Durga Prasad Tripathy, Nirakar Tripathy, Durga Prasad Mishra, Usharani Behera, Blorin Mohanty, Mahendra Padhi, Human Rights Front, Odisha, chairperson Manoj Jena, YUVA convener Sandeep Mohanty, Dillip Das of Antodaya, Kalahandi, Lalit Mishra of State Vigilance Council, Cuttack, Lok Samukhya convener Ashok Nanda, Odisha Nagarik Samaj general secretary Md. Ziauddin Ahmad, Dr Ramesh Behera, Bijay Parida and Bikram Swain.