Meenaxi Anand Chaudhry appointed Chief Information Commissioner of Haryana

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/meenaxi-anand-chaudhry-appointed-chief-information-commissioner-haryana/25477

Haryana Government has been appointed Meenaxi Anand Chaudhry as the Chief Information Commissioner of the state.

Haryana Governor Friday administered the oath of office to Mrs Chaudhry in a simple ceremony at Haryana Raj Bhawan, Chandigarh. The Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Chief Secretary, Urvashi Gulati were also present in the function.

Chaudhry had retired from the post of Chief Secretary on April 30, 2006 and was later appointed as State Information Commissioner on May 9, 2006 and since then she had been serving on this post.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperation,Sukhbir Kataria, Advocate General, Hawa Singh Hooda, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr Chattar Singh, Additional Principal Secretaries to Chief Minister, Dr K. K. Khandelwal and Mr Shiv Raman Gaur, Member of Haryana Public Service Commission, R. K. Sheokand, the Officiating Chairman of Haryana Staff Selection Commission, Vijay Chug, MLA B.B. Batra and Secretary to Governor, Mahendra Kumar were present on the occasion.

Later while interacting with the media persons, the newly appointed Chief Information Commissioner said that she had been associated with the Information Commission for the last four and a half years. Her priorities were to implement the Right to Information Act effectively, with transparency and in a simple manner. The Act had been implemented for the last about five years and the people of Haryana were quite aware about it as a large number of applications were received from the urban as well as rural areas for obtaining information. The people not only seek information on their personal matters but also on the welfare works such as power, schools and roads.

She said that the First Information Officers and the Public Information Officers of all the departments were functioning very efficiently as the Commission was receiving very less percentage of applications. People were being satisfied with the information received from the First Information Officers and the Public Information officers.

She said that some problems arise in providing information from old records; even then efforts were also made in this regard. It had become necessary to manage and maintain old records. Stressing upon the need of the departments to upload the basic information concerning their departments on the departmental websites, she said that it would facilitate the people to have the information easily and it would bring transparency and reduce the work of the Commission.