Retired IAS officer S Natarajan appointed TN State Chief Information CommissionerChennai: The state govt has appointed retired IAS officer S Natarajan as the State Chief Information Commissioner, along with four State Information Commissioners, filling vacancies in the Tamil Nadu Information Commission.According to a government order issued by the Human Resources Management Department on Thursday, S Natarajan has been appointed State Chief Information Commissioner, while S Mahalakshmi, Dr T K Shabeer, C B Meena and P Mahalingam have been appointed State Information Commissioners.The appointments come against the backdrop of vacancies in the state information commission, which is responsible for hearing appeals and complaints from people denied access to information under the RTI Act.The actual strength of the info panel dropped to four in August against the sanctioned strength of nine, after one of the information commissoiners M Natesan attained superannuation. Earlier, the terms of the then chief information officer Md Shakeel Akhter, information commissioners Thirumalaimuthu, P Thamaraikannan and R Priyakumar ended in June.The state govt then formed a search committee to fill vacacies and Atulya Misra was appointed as interim chief commissioner till a full-time chief is appointed.The latest appointments were made under Section 15(3) of the Right to Information Act, 2005. The five commissioners will hold office for three years from the date they assume charge or until they attain the age of 65, whichever is earlier. Their appointments and service conditions will be governed by the provisions of the RTI Act and the Right to Information Rules, 2019.The other serving information commissioners are VPR Elamparithi, Abhay Kumar Singh and A Vijayram.
