Complaint against Mrs Omita Paul
26/09/12 4:56 PM
the then leader of the opposition Shri Advani could find time to meet barely one week before the election day with other members of the appointment authority (which includes the Prime Minister) to clear the appointment unanimously shows the importance attached to the appointment of Mrs Omitta Paul. The suspicion that the appointment of Mrs Paul to the post of Information Commissioner was an insurance against the electoral defeat of the UPA was confirmed when the UPA came back to power and she was reappointed as advisor to the Finance Minister on 26/6/09 on the very day that she resigned as Information Commissioner. Such prompt resignation and appointment being made by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet is truly unprecedented in the history of such appointments. What is worse is that her resignation was not accepted and the note relating to recommending her resignation did the rounds of various ministries till November when it was agreed by the powers that be that the resignation came into effect on the date it was submitted and need not be accepted. However, the fact was not known at the time of her appointment as Advisor to the Finance Ministry and the same yardstick was not applied to the reported resignation of the then Chief Information Commissioner who went on to complete his term. If the appointment of Mrs Paul as Information Commissioner, her subsequent resignation and her reappointment as Adviser with the rank of Secretary on the very day of her resigning as Information Commissioner tells its own tale then the manner in which a exemption in the Income Tax Act was given to benefit her husband (and 13 to 15 other persons incidentally) was not only unprecedented but a blatant act of nepotism. In the budget that followed her appointment as Adviser the following exemption was granted to members of the UPSC. Under section 10 (45) of the Income Tax Act. (45) any allowance or perquisite, as may be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette in this behalf, paid to the Chairman or a retired Chairman or any other member or retired member of the Union Public Service Commission; The exemption was granted in 2011 for the financial year 2007-2008. Mr KK Paul, the husband of Mrs Omita Paul was appointed a member of the UPSC http://canarytrap.in/2011/06/03/complaint-against-mrs-omita-paul/
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