This is in response to the news carried by various English dailies of Jammu about Governor refusing to appointment G R Sufi as first Chief Information Commissioner for the J&K State Information Commission  (SIC)constituted under J&K RTI Act 2009. It is mandatory for any Government official to get vigilance clearance before taking over any
important assignment so it is not a new thing that Governor has sought Vigilance Clearance for Mr Sufi from the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) as Sufi serves at Income Tax Department on a senior position and his department comes under the administrative control the central Govt. It is a normal procedure and some section of media is unnecessarily making hue and cry over this matter. In addition to this the State Government needs to do a lot of home work before any meeting is held for appointment of the members to any commission or board in J&K. It was so sad to see in the recent
Selection Committee meeting between CM, LOP & Dy CM that the officials who were in charge of this meeting did not do any home work before his meeting was held.
The Selection Committee cleared name of Mr Sufi & Prof Santok Ram for the posts of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) & Information Commissioner (IC) and the selection committee had to drop his name at the last moment when it was revealed that Prof Santok Ram is already 65 years old (the age of CIC & IC must not be more that 65yrs under J&K RTI Act 2009). The same mistake State Government has done with regard to Mr G R Sufi. Before sending Mr G R Sufi's papers & other documents to Governor the officials concerned should have ensured to keep the CVC clearance
certificate with the same. It is a big mistake of the officials at Civil Secretariat and the CM must take a serious note of the aforementioned things.
Dr Muzaffar Bhat
Convener J&K RTI Movement
muzaffar@jkrtimovement.org

Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST