New Delhi:The UPA-appointed search commit-tee to nominate members for the Lokpal will soon under-go an overhaul as the gove-rnment plans to include new names in the panel. “There is no search committee for the Lokpal at the moment.
It will be reconstituted,” a senior government official said requesting anonymity. Ahead of the announce-ment of the general election last year, the UPA govern-ment had appointed an eight-member search com-mittee in February in a hurry with Justice (retd) K T Thomas as the Chairperson. The other members were Kaki Madhava Rao (former IAS officer), F S Nariman (legal luminary), Prof Meenakshi Gopinath (educationist), M L Kumawat (former BSF Chief), H K Dua and Prof Mrinal Miri (Rajya Sabha MPs) and S Y Quraishi (former Chief Election Commissioner).
But later both Thomas and Nariman had refused to be part of the search panel. Some of the members of the panel said they have not received any communi-cation from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) regarding the reconstitution exercise. “There has been no commu-nication from the govern-ment so far,”Miri told PTI.
Other members appro-ached by PTI refused to offer any comment, saying that it was the prerogative of the government to take a decision on reconstituting the panel. The Narendra Modi government had in August last year notified the new rules for the search committee and given it more freedom to recommend names for the Chairperson and members of the anti-corruption body outside the list provided by DoPT.
The government has also reduced the number of members in the search committee to seven from eight. As per the new rules, the search panel will consist of at least seven persons of standing and having special knowledge in anti-corruption, public administration and vigilance matters, among others. As per the earlier rules, an eight-member search panel was tasked to draw up a panel of persons for consideration by the selection committee led by Prime Minister. (PTI)
