Government to fill vacant posts of information commissioners in CIC

NEW DELHI: Government is today understood to have cleared names of five Information Commissioner for the Central Information Commission (CIC), a move which would almost fill all the vacancies.

Sources said names of Yashovardhan Azad, an IPS officer who had a long stint with country's snooping agency Intelligence Bureau before joining present assignment as Secretary (security) in Cabinet Secretariat, Sharat Sabharwal from Indian Foreign Service, Manjula Parashar 1975-batch Indian Postal Service Officer, who also held the position of Secretary Department of Posts have been cleared.

The name of Madabhushi Sridhar (Acharyulu) who ia writer on law and journalism and authored about 26 books on these topics is also believed to be the list of names cleared for the position, the sources said.

M A Khan Yusufi who is retired joint secretary from Ministry of Law is also believed to have been cleared for the Information Commission, they said.

The sources said a high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took place where these names are understood to have been cleared.

No formal communication was available from the government on the issue.

The Central Information Commission has four information commissioners besides Chief Information Commissioner.

According to RTI Act, Central Information Commission can have a maximum of 10 information commissioners and a Chief Information Commissioner.

With the new appointments, CIC will get all but one Information Commissioners which might help it in clearing backlog of over 30,000 cases.