Tamil Nadu information panel gets new chief

Chennai: Tamil Nadu information commission is set to get a new chief, as the state has appointed four members and chief information commissioner after a six-month delay.Retired Director General of Police Shakeel Akthar has been named Chief Information Commissioner. Shakeel, former CB-CID head, succeeds R Rajagopal, an ex-IAS officer who recently joined the Congress party.Shakeel will be the second Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre officer to be appointed as the chief of the commission, which deals with appeals and complaints filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005. K Ramanujam was the other cop to hold this post in between 2010 and 2017.Speaking to TOI, Shakeel said, "they say knowledge is power. But this is possible when we have the right information. Our job is to provide it". The Commission will try to ensure that genuine people, seeking information, will get it without further delays,he added.Retired Additional Director General of Police P Thamarai Kannan and three others were also appointed as information commissioners on Monday. They have a tall task of clearing thousands of cases, which are pending before the commission since December 2022. "We expect the new commissioners to dispose the pending appeals soon by directing concerned government officers to share the information but also penalise them for delaying it ," said SP Thiyagarajan, an RTI activist.The Act allows the commission to initiate disciplinary action against erring officers and collect a fine of Rs.250 per day for delays.Jayaram Venkatesan said that the idea of bringing in police officers, should be questioned.