Modi picks his pet babus to run state info panel

The incumbent additional chief secretary Balwant Singh will be second commissioner. Rajagopalan is currently the chairman of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) and Singh will retire in December-end this year.

Top officials in the state’s General Administration Department (GAD) said the committee headed by the CM in which the leader of Opposition (LOP) is a key member has cleared the names of the two bureaucrats for the post of CIC and commissioner.

The CIC post has been vacant since June 2011 when the first CIC RN Das retired. Nethra Shenoy’s term as the additional commissioner ended in September this year and since then,his post has also been lying vacant.

Both Rajagopalan and Singh are considered very close to the chief minister.

Rajagopalan had played a key role in successfully organising the 2007 and 2009 Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summits.

He retired as chief secretary on December 31,2009,and was appointed as the chairman of SSNNL on January 20,2010. He will serve as CIC till 2014.

Singh was shifted to the GAD in July this year from the home department,where he was posted as additional chief secretary.

He maintains a low profile and is known for his effective administrative skills.

The state at present has only one Information Commissioner,Arvind Shukla.

Pendency tendency

With the staff strength at the CIC office far less than in states with smaller populations,more than 8,000 cases have been pending for adjudication. Of the 44 sanctioned posts,10 are vacant.

Of the 21,197 appeals and complaints received by the ICs since the RTI came into force in 2005,12,889 cases were disposed of,while 8,308 cases remained unresolved as on September 30,2011,roughly 40 per cent of pendency of cases.

Gujarat,with a population of 6.2 crore,has three ICs while states with smaller population like Arunachal Pradesh (10 lakh) has 5 ICs,Karnataka (5.2 crore) and Jharkhand (2.6 crore) have seven ICs each. Punjab (2.4 crore) has 6 ICs.