Former Information & Broadcasting Secretary Uday Kumar Varma has joined as a Member of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), the independent self-regulatory body set up by Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to address complaints against non-news channels in the country. Mr Varma, a former IAS officer of 1976 batch from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, attended the Council's meeting on Wednesday, a BCCC official said. He was a Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) till recently. Mr Varma replaces former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, whose tenure at BCCC has ended. The 13-member Council, chaired by former Supreme Court judge, Justice Vikramajit Sen, has actor Sharmila Tagore, theatre person Arundhati Nag and JNU professor Ira Bhaskar as some of its members, besides representatives of the National Commission for Women, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and National Commission for Minorities among others. Set up in June 2011, BCCC has conducted 75 meetings so far and addressed thousands of complaints relating to non-news general entertainment television programmes in all languages. Mr Varma assumed office as I&B secretary soon around the same time. An alumnus of Netarhat School in Jharkhand and Benares Hindu University, the former IAS officer spearheaded the nationwide digitization programme in broadcasting as I&B Secretary. He holds a master's degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.