Centre Appoints KV Chowdary as CVC, Vijai Sharma New CIC

Former Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chief KV Chowdary was on Monday appointed the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).

TM Bhasin, chairman and managing director of public sector Indian Bank, was appointed as vigilance commissioner, an official release said.

Meanwhile, the senior most information commissioner, Vijai Sharma, was named the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), sources told IANS.

The post of CVC had been lying vacant since Pradeep Kumar retired on September 28, 2014, while the post of vigilance commissioner was also unfilled since incumbent JM Garg completed his tenure on September 7, 2014.

Chowdary, a 1979 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, has also headed many high profile income tax probes, including that of the 2G spectrum allocation case and the HSBC Geneva taxpayers' list.

The appointments have been made for a term of four years from the date(s) on which the officials enter upon their office(s) or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier, the release added.

The government was under attack from the opposition for delaying the appointments and various RTI activists had also questioned the delay.