Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi among Information Commissioner contenders

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi is one of the contenders for the post of Information Commissioner in Central Information Commission ( CIC).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee is likely to meet soon to decide on names for three vacant posts of Information Commissioners in the transparency watchdog, official sources said.

Bassi, who is due to retire this month-end, is one of the applicants for the post of Information Commissioner, they said.

His name was shortlisted last November by a search committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. Bassi is a 1977 batch IPS officer of union territories cadre.

There is a vacancy of three Information Commissioners against its total strength of 10.

Besides him, former Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Shyamal K Sarkar, Anup K Pujari, the then Secretary of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and former Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka were also shortlisted then.

Bassi had applied for both the post of Information Commissioner and Central Information Commissioner against the government's order issued in September last.

The government had in December appointed former Defence Secretary R K Mathur as head of the transparency panel. Mathur has tenure as CIC till he attains the age of 65 on November 25, 2018.