No decision yet on appointment of CVC, CIC

The Prime Minister-led selection committees could not arrive at a decision on the appointment of chiefs of Central Information Commission (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) at a meeting held here today.

There will be another meeting on the issue shortly, official sources said.

The meeting was convened at the Prime Minister's residence and was attended by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh and senior officials of PMO.

The selection panel was to finalise the names of Information Commissioners in CIC and Vigilance Commissioners in CVC, the sources said.

The post of Chief Information Commissioner has been lying vacant for over nine months. Rajiv Mathur's term as chief of the transparency watchdog ended on August 22, 2014. Besides, there is a vacancy of three Information Commissioners in the CIC.

As per Right to Information Act, the CIC has one chief and ten Information Commissioners.

In CVC, Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar and Vigilance Commissioner J M Garg had completed their term on September 28 and September 7, last year, respectively.

The CVC is headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner and has two Vigilance Commissioners. Mathur, a former Director General of Central Industrial Security Force, is acting as interim chief of the transparency watchdog.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of vacant posts of CIC and Information Commissioners.