Government and the opposition today agreed on the names of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) (Representational Image)
A panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi finalised the names of the next the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on Wednesday. A formal announcement of the names will take place after President Pranab Mukherjee gives his assent. The President is away on a five-day visit to Sweden and Belarus, till Thursday.
There was no official word on the names but sources told NDTV that former chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes, K V Chowdary, is tipped to be the next CVC. Though a couple of other senior IAS officers were under consideration, there seemed consensus on the name of Mr Chowdary, a retired Indian Revenue Service officer.
Mr Chowdary, who retired as CBDT chief in October last year, has been working as adviser to Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing black money cases.
The panel headed by the Prime Minister included Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha.
The senior most information commissioner, Vijai Sharma, is likely to be the next CIC. Mr Sharma's name was discussed by another selection panel that was headed by the PM and included Mr Kharge and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Mr Sharma, a former Environment Secretary, has been working as Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission since 2012.
Both these posts have been lying vacant for months now and the issue has become politically surcharged after Congress president Sonia Gandhi, while raising the issue in the Lok Sabha last month, had accused the Modi government of undermining these posts by keeping them vacant.
Mr Kharge refused to name the officials who have been finalised but confirmed to NDTV that the government had been able to arrive at a consensus. "It is a process and the next step in that the recommended names have to be approved by the President now," said Mr Kharge.