Tripura Appoints Chief Information Commissioner After a Long Gap of Over Three Years
Click to start listening
Agartala, Dec 31 (NationPress) After a hiatus of more than three years, Tripura has finally appointed a chief for the State Information Commission.
On Tuesday, Governor Indra Sena Reddy Nallu officiated the oath-taking ceremony for Binoy Shankar Mishra as the new state Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) during a modest event at the Raj Bhavan.
Key officials, including the Governor’s Secretary Uttam Kumar Chakma, and the Secretary of the Information Commission Manik Lal Das, were present at this concise ceremony, which was organized by Anindya Kumar Bhattacharya, the Special Secretary of the General Administration Department.
Previously, a committee consisting of three members, headed by Chief Minister Manik Saha, proposed Mishra’s name for the CIC position. The committee also included Leader of Opposition Jitendra Chowdhury and a senior cabinet minister.
Mishra, a retired officer of the Indian Forest Service, is set to serve in this role for a duration of three years or until he reaches the age of 65.
The position had been vacant since mid-2021 when former Director General of Tripura Police and senior IPS officer Akhil Kumar Shukla resigned from the CIC post.
The absence of a CIC and state information commissioners has rendered the Right to Information Commission in Tripura almost non-functional, despite a backlog of applications for official information that have been denied at lower administrative levels.
An official from the Information Commission revealed that over 2,000 appellate applications are pending awaiting action from the commission.
The Right to Information Act, 2005 was implemented on October 12, 2005, nationwide, and the Tripura Commission was established in January of the following year (2006).
Officials noted that the Tripura Right to Information Rules were initially established in 2006 and later revised, with the updated rules taking effect from February 4, 2008.
