Dr Padwal appointed new Information Commissioner
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 19 July 2012 21:37 IST
Goa government finally appointed the State Information Commissioner - Dr Pradeep Padwal.
The post had run into controversy after Dr P R Nadkarni refused to take over, following a frivolous campaign against him by a social activist.
Padwal would hold the post for the next five years.
While the appointment was officially declared, chief minister Manohar Parrikar also announced it in the Assembly tonight.
He also expressed regrets that an upright person like Dr Nadkarni could not take up the posting.
All charges made against him were false and media should have been alert while publishing false allegations made against him, said the chief minister.
He also dismissed the argument that the information commissioner should have a legal background.
The central information commissioner Satyanand Mishra has been holding the post for the last four years and he has no legal background, argued Parrikar.
Padwal retired as the officer in the Public Health Department.
Till recently, he was holding the post of a project director of the Goa State AIDS Control Society.
He was one of the three persons shortlisted for the post of state information commissioner.
Dr Padwal is a medical graduate with a post graduate diploma in occupational industrial health and a recipient of WHO fellowship for a post-graduate diploma in STDs and AIDS.
Meanwhile, during the debate, chief minister countered members’ suggestions to amend the Right to Information Act to regulate the acts of people taking undue advantage of it.
“It is the best act and we need it to keep vigil on all of us”, he said.
In fact, Parrikar went to the extent of suggesting that he would prefer making all the files available on the Internet to the public.
