Open letter to CM, Dy. CM and Leader of the Opposition....: by RTI activists, Maharashtra

To,

The Chief Minister - Shri Ashok Chavan,

The Deputy Chief Minister - Shri Chhagan Bhujbal, and

Leader of the Opposition - Shri Eknath Khadse.

Sub. :-- Credentials of the Information Commissioners and the Chief Information Commissioner of Maharashtra selected by you as members of the "Selection Committee".

Respected Sirs,

We are concerned citizens of Mumbai and have used the RTI Act 2005 since it was introduced in India to get transparency and accountability from our Government.

We have known, through newspapers reports, that Mr Vilas Patil has been selected as the Chief Information Commissioner in place of Dr Suresh V Joshi. And Mr M S Shah, Mr P D Patil and Mr Deshmukh have been selected as Info. Commissioners of Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad.

So want you, as our political representatives and members of the "Selection Committee", answer our following questions regarding the selection of these Info. Commissioners :--

1. What are the qualifications of the selected commissioners.

2. What are the documents, track records, etc. which were studied inorder to come to the conclusion that these selected commissioners were the best option available to you for this important post which entails facilitating free flow of information from the Govt. records to the citizens and penalising the errant PIOs who withhold information.

3. Which were the qualities, skills, experience and qualifications of the selected commissioners which were not there in the other applications to these post.

4. If no scrutiny was made of the other applicants for this post, then kindly provide the reasons recorded for totally disregarding them.

5. What were the steps taken to inform all eligible citizens that four posts of Information Commissioners are vacant, as requiired under Sec. 15 (5) of the RTI Act 2005 which says that :--

Sec. 15 (5) says :--

15 (5)

“The State Chief Information Commissioner and the State Information Commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance.”

6. What were the reason recorded for ignoring the directions of the Dept. of Personnel and Training "Search Committee's Guidelines 1994" Point No. 3 (1) (i), which states that :--

“It is to be kept in mind that as a rule, appointments in government are to be made on the basis of open advertisement.”

7. What were the reasons recorded to ignore the directions of the Point No. 4.1 (ii) of the DoPT Circular No. AB 14017 / 11 / 2004 Est (RR) dated 30/7/2007 which has given the detailed procedure to be followed for filling up of Government posts. The main part states that :--

“ Since, as a rule, appointments in Government has to be made on the basis of open advertisements , this requirement has to be followed without fail, and it is only in situations where advertisement may not result in adequate response that a Search Committee should normally be appointed”.

8. What were the reasons recorded for ignoring the directions of the Maharashtra Govt. GAD's letter to the Selection Committee in 2007 which has recommended selecting Info. Commissioners by openly advertising for the post in the print and electronic media.

We would appreciate if you could reply to the above queries as early as possible.

Thanking you.

Yours Sincerely,

G R Vora,

Sunil Ahya,

Mohammed Afzal and

Krishnaraj Rao,

Ms Vidya Vaidya,

On behalf of all RTI users and concerned citizens of Mumbai.

Plot - 275 / 3, Gope Nivas, Sion E, Mumbai - 22.

Cell : 09869195785