The meeting of the high-level panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to select the next Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) remained inconclusive Saturday. Another meeting will be held next week to finalise the selections. Apart from these, the panel was also scheduled to finalise names for the post of information commissioners in CIC and vigilance commissioners in CVC. “The meeting was held in an amicable atmosphere. There were certain more details to be obtained in reference to the candidates under consideration. Therefore, it was decided that another meeting will be called next week at a mutually-convenient date,” Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said after the meeting. [related-post] Saturday’s meeting was convened at the Prime Minister’s residence and was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and MoS Jitendra Singh. Earlier this month, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi had questioned the delay in appointments of chiefs of CIC, CVC and Lokpal by the Modi government. Many RTI activists have also questioned the delay in appointments. The CIC, which is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed against government departments or public authorities by information seekers under the Right to Information Act, has been working without a chief for over nine months, after the tenure of CIC Rajiv Mathur ended on August 22, 2014. Three posts of information commissioners in the CIC are also vacant. Sources said there are 203 applicants, including all seven information commissioners, for the post of the Chief Information Commissioner and 553 for the post of information commissioners. Under the RTI Act, the CIC has one chief and 10 information commissioners. As for the CVC, the term of Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar ended on September 28 last year, while that of vigilance commissioner J M Garg ended on September 7. Sources said the government has received about 130 applications for the two posts.
