PM-led panel meets to decide on appointments of CVC, CIC

New Delhi: The Central Government is set to announce appointments for the post of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner and the Chief Information Commissioner on Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met top officials on Friday to discuss the appointments.

The post of the CVC and the CIC have been vacant since September 2014 and August 2014 respectively. The CVC appointment is essential for the government so it can appoint people to other key positions like the chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The meeting to finalise the appointments will be been convened at the Prime Minister's residence. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh are likely to attend the meeting.

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

The post of Chief Information Commissioner is 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. Rajiv, a former Director General of Central Industrial Security Force, is acting as interim chief of the transparency watchdog.

Both the selection panels are headed by Prime Minister. The selection panel for CIC comprises of a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by Prime Minister, which is Finance Minister Jaitley, and the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha.

Whereas, the selection committee for CVC has Home Minister and LoP as members.

Since, there is no LoP in the lower house, Congress party leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been included in the selection panel for both the CIC and CVC.