Punjab Government appoints three info commissioners

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

The state government today appointed Dr Bhupinder Singh, Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal and Virinderjit Singh Billing as State Information Commissioners of the Punjab State Information Commission. A notification to this effect was issued after Governor Gulab Chand Kataria accorded in-principle approval to the state government’s recommendation on Monday evening.

There are total five posts of Information Commissioner. After today’s appointments, two more posts are yet to be filled. For quite some time now, the commission was working with only the Chief Information Commissioner. The government had been drawing flak from various quarters for vacancies in the commission. Even today, the Punjab Youth Congress held a press conference on the issue.

Accusing the AAP government of making mockery of the Right to Information Act, the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) said at least 9,175 applications were pending for disposal with the commission.

Linking the inordinate delay in filling all vacant posts of information commissioner, PYC chief Mohit Mohindra alleged that the AAP government was trying to hide its misdeeds from the public by delaying information transfer. “The government has made it tough to seek information under the RTI Act. There is no information commissioner for the past several months,” said Mohindra earlier in the day.

Sharing information on the pendency of applications, sought from the commission, the PYC said as on June 30, 9,175 applications were pending. The pendency has gone up further since then.

PYC RTI cell in-charge Jashandeep Singh said the CM had earlier claimed that they had signed MoUs worth Rs 38,000 crore for investment in the state. “Information obtained through an RTI plea revealed that an MoU for only Rs 2,600 crore was signed with TATA Steels in the last over two years. In advertisements, the government has claimed having signed MoUs worth Rs 70,000 crore,” he claimed.

Information obtained through another RTI plea by the PYC revealed that AAP had spent over Rs 7 crore on its rallies, showing those as state functions. “The Bathinda DC spent Rs 4.16 crore on a political rally of AAP at Maur Mandi held on December 17, 2023. Such seven rallies were organised and government buses misused,” added Jashandeep Singh.