New Delhi, Feb. 2: The sports ministry on Tuesday directed the Indian Olympic Association and the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to immediately appoint ‘central public information officers’ and ‘appeallate authorities’ under the Right to Information Act, as per the directive of the Delhi high court last month.
"The ministry has sent a communication to the IOA and OC, Commonwealth Games, 2010 in pursuance to the Hon’ble Delhi high court’s order dated January 7, 2010, declaring both entities as the Public Authorities under Right to Information Act 2005.
"Both organisations have further been asked to fulfil various obligations of being a Public Authority, as per Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, including maintaining all their records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner so as to facilitate the right to information under this Act and suo moto disclosure/publishing of information pertaining to IOA/OC, CWG 2010," a ministry release said.
The OC in the past had contended against the Central Information Commission that it was an independent and autonomous body and thus not liable to reveal information under the RTI act. The central government, on the other hand, claimed that it was providing almost the whole budgetary support to the Games and the committee could not take the plea that it was an independent body.
The OC claims that the process was already on for the formulation of two committees. "We have already decided on the personnel we want to appoint in these committees and they will be constituted very soon. We don’t have to seek the approval of the sports ministry regarding their formation, it is a matter which OC has to decide," OC spokesperson Lalit Bhanot told this newspaper on Tuesday.
IOA president Suresh Kalmadi has been against the presence of any monitoring authority above the OC since Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell proposed the formation of a Technical Review Panel in October last year. The TRP was supposed to provide a detailed monthly report in an ‘open, transparent manner’ and monitor the final year of preparation.
The proposal to form the panel though was subsequently dropped in December after strong opposition from the OC.
AGE CORRESPONDENT