Rajiv Mathur takes over as the seventh Chief Information Commissioner at CIC
23 May, 2014
Rajiv Mathur, (IPS Retd) has taken over as the seventh Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission (CIC) yesterday. The 64 year old former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Before him, Sushma Singh, Deepak Sandhu, Satyananda Mishra, A N Tiwari and Wajahat Habibullah have also served as Chief Information Commissioners.
Mathur, 64, joined the CIC in March 2012 and shall succeed Sushma Singh, who demitted office on May 21. A three-member selection panel headed by outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recommended his name. He is recipient of the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service. He would demit the office on August 23, upon attaining the age of 65 years.
With nearly 14,000 appeals and complaints pending with the CIC, Mathur has resolved to reduce the pendency of appeals and complaints. He intends to take adherence of Section 4 of RTI Act (which mandates public authorities to disclose information related to their working in public domain) by various government departments on priority.
Currently, there are seven Information Commissioners working at the CIC against the maximum approved strength of ten. They are - Vijai Sharma, Basant Seth, Yashovardhan Azad, Sharat Sabharwal, Manjula Prasher, M A Khan Yusufi and Prof Madabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu. DoPt had called for applications for filling in two vacancies which is likely to be taken up by the current government.
For our earlier report - “Mr. Rajiv Mathur to take over as the new Chief Information Commissioner at CIC” read at: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/mr-rajiv-mathur-take-over-new-chief-information-co#.U37Cn_mSyqw