Mumbai: Retired civil servant Neela Satyanarayan has been appointed the State Election Commissioner (SEC) of Maharashtra, official sources said here Thursday. She is the first woman in the state to hold the post.

Succeeding Nand Lal who retired recently as the SEC, she will take charge of her new assignment soon.

Satyanarayan retired as additional chief secretary from the state government three months ago.

In the past, she has held important assignments in the revenue, home, forest, social, information and publicity, medical, rural development and other departments of the government.

As the SEC, a constitutional post, she will be responsible for conducting local elections in the state.

From the 1971 batch of the Indian Administrative Service, Satyanarayan is a multi-faceted personality with interest in music and literature.

She has to her credit several collections of poems and plays penned in Hindi and Marathi, and later translated in other languages. She has penned one book specially for the visually handicapped persons.

She has also penned the lyrics for over 150 songs and provided music to several Marathi movies, including "Tuch Maazi Aai", "Jodidar", "Raahile Door Ghar Maaze", "Savitri,"

Besides these, she was the music director and lyricist for two Bollywood movies, and has been conferred numerous awards and honours in the field of literature and culture from around the country.

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