Information Commission hopes to get more reach

Jaipur: The State Information Commission has not been formed yet as two more members are yet to be appointed - one in Jaipur and the other in the new bench to be formed in Jodhpur. The strength of the commission in Jaipur is one Chief Commissioner and 4 Commissioners. Recently, the government has appointed one Chief Information Commissioner and three Commissioners. But in this process, ML Lather, who was already a Commissioner, has been promoted and made CIC and hence his previous post of Commissioner has become vacant, therefore, one more Commissioner is to be appointed on this.

On the other hand, the formation of a new bench of the commission in Jodhpur is pending. In the previous Congress government, the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had announced the bench in Jodhpur in the budget for the year 2023-24. Along with this, the necessary financial provision for the new posts of one Information Commissioner and a staff of 12 people was also approved. An amount of Rs 20 lakh was separately approved for the necessary resources.

According to sources, during the previous government itself, applications were also invited through advertisement for a Commissioner for the Jodhpur Bench. But then this process did not move forward and is pending till date.

It is worth mentioning that the Information Commission was formed in Rajasthan in the year 2006. Since then, there has been a demand for setting up benches in other big cities of the state. In the disposal of a PIL in this regard, the High Court had directed the State Government to consider the matter. Then the government had sought a factual report from the Information Commission. In response, the then acting C.I.C. Ashutosh Sharma had said that setting up benches in Jodhpur and Udaipur was necessary. Because there are many cases in these farflung areas and the residents there face a lot of difficulty in coming to Jaipur. The government was also told that there are benches in many other states of the country. There are a total of 7 benches in Maharashtra.

The then government had approved the setting up of a new bench in Jodhpur. But the case of Udaipur was not considered. Now the Bhajan Lal government can reopen Ashutosh Sharma’s recommendation to set up a bench in Udaipur too.