Vijai Sharma tipped to be new CIC; KV Chowdary may be CVC

NEW DELHI: KV Chowdary and Vijai Sharma could be India’s new Central Vigilance Commissioner ( CVC) and Chief Information Commissioner ( CIC), respectively, as per a top government official, after top-level meetings attended by the PM finalised names for the top posts. The government on Monday also finalised names of a Vigilance Commissioner and three Information Commissioners and all the recommendations have been forwarded to the President.

The names are being withheld as the recommendations await the assent of President Pranab Mukherjee who is on a tour to Sweden till Thursday. The six posts have been lying vacant for several months and over 800 names were considered for these posts in all.

Chowdary is an IRS officer of the 1978 batch who retired as the CBDT Chairman and was subsequently appointed by the Modi Government last October as an advisor to the SIT that is probing the black money cases. He earlier also held the important position of Director General of Income Tax (Investigations). Sharma is the senior most among serving information commissioners.

“The selection panels have met and their recommendations have been sent to President’s office. All the names against the vacant posts have been sent to the President. I cannot tell you the names,” Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said after the meeting. Kharge was part of both selection committee meetings that were chaired by the PM.