Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 16: The high-level Selection Committee today cleared names for the posts of State Vigilance Commission (SVC) and State Information Commission (SIC), which were lying vacant for the past quite some time now. The State Government was repeatedly being targeted from various quarters for keeping the SVC defunct and SIC without the members for a long time.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Selection Committee for both the Commissions headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met today in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State. The SVC Selection Committee comprised Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister and Law Minister Abdul Haq Khan. Barring Khan, remaining members were part of the SIC Selection Committee.
The Committee is understood to have cleared the name of retired IPS officer and former Director General of Police (DGP) Pitambar Lal Gupta for the post of State Vigilance Commissioner. He will replace Kuldeep Khoda, also former DGP, who had completed his term in February this year.
The Vigilance Commissioners, cleared for the SVC, included Gazanffar Hussain, a retired IAS officer, who had served as GAD Secretary apart from holding other posts and Rajeshwar Singh, a retired IFS officer.
While Khurshid Ganai, a former senior IAS officer has already been serving as the State Information Commissioner, the Selection Committee cleared the names of Ashraf Mir, former Law Secretary and AK Atri, a retired IPS officer, who had superannuated as DIG Rajouri-Poonch range as Information Commissioners.
Sources said one of the members couldn’t make it to the post of Information Commissioner due to objections by one of the members of the Selection Committee.
“All the appointments to both the Commissions were then made unanimously,” they added.
As there was no Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, the Act states that Leader of the single largest Opposition party will be treated as the Leader of Opposition and incorporated in the Selection Committee. Omar Abdullah, being National Conference Legislature Party leader, was taken as member of the Selection Committee in both the Panels.
Sources said Law Minister Abdul Haq Khan was part of only the Selection Committee for SVC and not the SIC.
The appointments made by the Selection Committee will now be sent to Governor NN Vohra by the State Government and after his approval only, the formal orders for the appointments will be issued.
Sources disclosed that detailed profile of all five appointments cleared by the Selection Committee today would be sent to the Governor along with the proposal of appointments for his clearance.
Pitambar Lal Gupta, who will be the new State Vigilance Commissioner and Gazanffar Hussain and Rajeshwar Singh as new Vigilance Commissioners, will make the SVC functional, which was lying defunct since March this year. Former State Vigilance Commissioner, Kuldeep Khoda had completed his term in February this year. The Commission became defunct in March.
The Government has been drawing flak from various quarters for keeping SVC defunct for several months and SIC without the two Information Commissioners as it was having only Chief Information Commissioner, Khurshid Ganai, a retired senior IAS officer of the State Government.
“Once the Governor clears the names and the Government issues appointment orders, both the Commissions will be made fully functional,” sources pointed out.
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