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An office for Justice Khan, against wife?s wishes
THREE MONTHS after he was appointed State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), Justice (retired) MA Khan regrets having taken up the job. ?I have no office of my own. No ?chaprasi? or a babu. Just a secretary, who is retiring in a couple of months from now. And yet I am told that the post I occupy is on par with that of a Supreme Court judge,? he said.
THREE MONTHS after he was appointed State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), Justice (retired) MA Khan regrets having taken up the job. “I have no office of my own. No ‘chaprasi’ or a babu. Just a secretary, who is retiring in a couple of months from now. And yet I am told that the post I occupy is on par with that of a Supreme Court judge,” he said.
Khan’s candid outburst at a seminar on Right To Information here took both the audience as well as the panel of speakers, which included senior bureaucrats, by surprise. “I have apprised Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav of the prevailing sorry state of affairs in the Commission and he has assured me that the needful would be done soon,” said the CIC as members of the steel frame on the dais smiled knowingly. “With no place to function from, I somehow am trying to run the commission and have set up an office in a small room at my residence much against the wishes of my wife,” he said.
The Commission, he said, was nothing but a toothless tiger as it did not possess any powers to get its order implemented or take erring officers to task. “I wanted to create awareness among the public about the RTI through slide-shows in cinema halls and by putting out advertisements in the newspapers but there are no funds,” he lamented.
“I can say it with full confidence that only in 5 per cent offices steps have been taken to appoint information officers as envisaged under the Act,” he said.
