Former media advisor to Prime Minister Deepak Sandhu and former secretary in the Union government Sushma Singh were sworn in, on Wednesday, as new information commissioners at the Central Information Commission.

Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah administered oath of office to them. With their inclusion, the strength of commissioners at the CIC has gone up to nine, just one short of the required numbers under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Sandhu was the principal director general of the Press Information Bureau in the ministry of information and broadcasting before taking over as the first

woman media advisor of the Prime Minister. When asked about switching of roles from a bureaucrat to an Information Commissioner she said she had held the position of Public Information Officer, so she was very much in the thick of RTI matters.

Singh, a 1972-batch Indian Administrative Service officer from Jharkhand, who retired as secretary, information and broadcasting ministry, said that now a days bureaucracy is also open to disclosure of information. "There is no divide between the Commission and the bureaucracy. Now a days officers have been asked to ensure smooth flow of information and guidelines have been issued for the same," she said.