Sushma Singh takes over as new CIC

New Delhi: Former IAS officer Sushma Singh was on Thursday appointed as Chief Information Commissioner of the Central Information Commission.

64-year-old Singh, who has taken over as the fifth chief of the transparency watchdog, is the second woman to be appointed to the post after Deepak Sandhu, whose term ended yesterday. A panel comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, and Law Minister Kapil Sibal appointed Singh as the CIC. She was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Singh became an Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission on September 23, 2009. She had joined Indian Administrative Service in 1972 and was allocated Jharkhand cadre. She retired from IAS on May 31, 2009. Singh has served as Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. She has also served as Secretary in the ministries of Panchayati Raj and Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER). Besides her, there are eight Information Commissioners -- Rajiv Mathur, Vijai Sharma, Basant Seth, Yashovardhan Azad, Sharat Sabharwal, Manjula Prasher, M A Khan Yusufi and Prof Madabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu -- against the commissioned strength of 10. The CIC is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed by information seekers, under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, against government departments or public authorities. Satyananda Mishra, A N Tiwari and Wajahat Habibullah have also served as CIC.