Tag: chief information commissioner

Trinamool raises issues of public importance in the Parliament

Posted on | by admin2 | Leave a Comment on Trinamool raises issues of public importance in the Parliament

Members of Parliament belonging to Trinamool Congress today raised issue related to public importance in both houses of the Parliament. Leader of the party in Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Dr Ratna De Nag spoke today about call drops issue and arsenic poisoning, respectively, while in the Upper House, Nadimul Haque raised the issue of appointment of Chief Information Commissioner during Zero Hour.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay raised the issue of call drops which is currently a major concern for people. “For a call of 15 minutes duration, the line gets disconnected at least 15 times,” he said. “Has the Government taken any step to collect money from private companies for call drops and how much money has been collected so far,” he questioned.

Click here for the full transcript and video of his speech

Also in Lok Sabha, Dr Ratna De Nag made a Zero Hour mention about arsenic poisoning. She said that 96 out of 640 districts have arsenic deposits and arsenic is entering our food chain. “Over 3 lakh people have arsenic related disease of which 30% are poor,” she said adding that the government must bring a policy to ensure arsenic poisoning is contained and arsenic does not enter our food chain.

Click here for the full transcript and video of her speech

In the Upper House, Nadimul Haque spoke on the appointment of Chief Information Commissioner. He pointed out that till date 33000 cases are pending before the CIC and the delay in appointment of CIC has laid to denial of information on higher offices. Why is the Government not appointing CIC expeditiously, he wondered while urging that in future the government must appoint the CIC well in advance before the term of sitting commissioner ends.

Click here for the full transcript and video of his speech

Nadimul Haque demands expeditious appointment of CIC

Posted on | by admin2 | Leave a Comment on Nadimul Haque demands expeditious appointment of CIC

I like to bring to the attention of the house the delay in the appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner. Sir, this has led to a mounting pendency of cases before the office of the Chief Information Commissioner. Till date, approximately 33000 appeals and complaints are pending before the Central Information Commission out of which 12000 belong to the Chief Information Commission.

Sir, the chief information commissioner is responsible for hearing second appeals and complaints arising out of high offices of the government including the PMO, the President’s Secretariat, and various ministries etc and is appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee constituted by the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and a member of the cabinet to be appointed or nominated by the Prime Minister.

However, this delay in the appointment of the CIC has led to an indirect denial of information for the aforesaid higher offices which the Government on merits may not be able to deny directly under the RTI Act, 2005. The PM has recently said at the 10th Annual Convention of the CIC that the process of assessing information should be transparent, timely and trouble free, delayed information does not help in solving a problem but increases it.

Sir, in this light i would like to ask that why is the PM not appointing a CIC. Hence, i would request the government to appoint a Chief Information Commissioner expeditiously and in future that the CIC is appointed well in advance before the tenure of the sitting Chief information Commissioner comes to an end.

Thank you sir.