Government, Opposition agree on CIC, CVC names

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New Delhi, June 1, 2015: Names of CVC and CIC cleared at a meeting between Prime Minister and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha.

Earlier last month, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi had attacked the Prime Minister over the delay in the appointments of chiefs of CIC, CVC and Lokpal saying the government feared transparency.

Many RTI activists have also questioned the delay in appointments.

The CIC, which is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed against government departments or public authorities by information seekers under the Right to Information Act, has been working without a chief for over nine months, after the tenure of CIC Rajiv Mathur ended on August 22, 2014.

Three posts of information commissioners in the CIC are also vacant.

Sources said there are 203 applicants, including all seven information commissioners, for the post of the Chief Information Commissioner and 553 for the post of information commissioners.

Under the RTI Act, the CIC has one chief and 10 information commissioners.
In CVC, the term of Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar had ended on September 28 last year, while vigilance commissioner J M Garg completed his tenure on September 7.

The government has received about 130 applications for the two posts at the anti-corruption watchdog, they said.