Govt. yet to appoint State Information Commissioner; Number of cases filed at Manipur Information Commission drastically reduces

Imphal, Dec 20: Technically citizens of the state are entitled to get information from government or public undertaking institutions under the Right to Information Act 2005. But it remains a puzzle whether this rights of the citizens has been slowly poisoned here in the state of Manipur as the number of case registered in the past two years has been drastically reduced.
Manipur Information Commission is an effective tool to check corruption where the BJP led government in the state has been handling with extreme seriousness.  
When Imphal Times reporters, met and enquired about the present status of the Manipur Information Commission it is learnt that the post of State Information Commissioner is still lying vacant till today since March 31, 2013, after the retirement of Ch. Birendra Singh, retired IAS.
Th. Ibobi Singh, Retd. IFS, has been serving as Chief Information Commissioner of the statutory body since May 4, 2015.
According to information collected, the Commission received 103 complaints in 2015-16. Of this 90 were reported disposed while 13 were indisposed.  During the same period 99 second appellate cases were filed and among this 95 were disposed.
In 2016-17, that is from April, 2017 till March 2017, the Commission received only 42 complaints. Above this 49 cases of the 73 backlog cases has been disposed. During this period 177 second appellate cases were heard and 159 disposed along with 33 backlog cases.
From March, 2017 till date today, the authority of the Manipur Information Commission failed to provide the number of cases received by the commission. Which means that the commission did not maintain proper records of the case filed by complainants.
Some of the staffs are of the opinion that due to the vacancy of the state Information Commissioner, there have been some difficulties in the function of the commission.
The commission members are appointed by a Committee headed by the Chief Minister. Other members include the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and one Cabinet Minister nominated by the Chief Minister. The State Information Commission shall consist of State Chief Information Commissioner and state Information Commissioners, not exceeding ten.
Earlier, government had not filled the post on the ground that there was no opposition leader in the house. This time a strong opposition leader is already in the house and it still remain as a surprise to everyone on guessing out why the state government is not appointing the vacant post till today.