From correspondents in Punjab, India, 09:31 PM IST

Punjab's Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh has resigned and he has been appointed as the state's chief information commissioner (CIC).

Singh, a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Punjab cadre, will join the state information commission after his resignation from IAS is accepted by the central government.

He was to retire as Punjab chief secretary September this year.

Singh will be the CIC for a five-year term.

The post of the CIC had fallen vacant eight months ago when Rajan Kashyap retired. Kashyap too was a former Punjab chief secretary.

Right-to-information (RTI) activists had opposed the Punjab government's move to appoint a sitting chief secretary as the CIC saying that the state information commission had become a ground to rehabilitate retired and serving bureaucrats.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)