Tripura gets Chief Information Commissioner after over 3 years

After more than three years, Tripura on Tuesday got a chief of the State Information Commission. 

Governor Indra Sena Reddy Nallu on Tuesday administered oath to Binoy Shankar Mishra as the state Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.

Senior officials including Governor’s Secretary Uttam Kumar Chakma, and Information Commission’s Secretary Manik Lal Das attended the brief ceremony which was conducted by General Administration Department’s Special Secretary Anindya Kumar Bhattacharya.

Earlier, a 3-member committee headed by Chief Minister Manik Saha recommended Mishra’s name as the CIC. Leader of Opposition Jitendra Chowdhury and a senior cabinet minister are the members of the committee.

Mishra, a retired Indian Forest Service officer, would hold the post for three years or till he attains 65 years of age.

Former Director General of Tripura Police and senior IPS officer Akhil Kumar Shukla resigned from the post of CIC in mid-2021 and since then, the post has been lying vacant.

In the absence of a CIC and state information commissioners, the Right to Information Commission in the state has remained virtually dysfunctional for a long time even as applications for official information denied at lower levels of the administration continue to pile up in its office.

An official of the Information Commission said that more than 2,000 appellate applications have been lying for the actions of the Information Commission.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 came into force on October 12, 2005, across the country and in Tripura, the Commission was set up in January next year (2006).

Officials said that the Tripura Right to Information Rules were formulated in 2006. Subsequently, it was revised and the revised rules came into force with effect from February 4, 2008.