Vijayawada: At least five Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers are awaiting postings for nearly six months now, while another remains on leave ever since Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu took over the reins of Andhra Pradesh from Jagan Mohan Reddy in June.
The civil servants include Yerra Srilakshmi (IAS 1988 batch), the second most senior IAS in the state after chief secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad, and Mutyalaraju Revu (IAS 2007 batch), Jagan’s additional secretary and later secretary, who also served as principal secretary of the influential general administration (political) department.
Revu was the all-India topper in the 2006 UPSC exam, a rank he secured while under training as an IPS probationer at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad.
While these skilled and experienced IAS officers are kept aside, some civil servants like Suresh Kumar are entrusted with responsibilities of several departments and sectors.
The 2000 batch IAS officer is secretary of infrastructure and investment, real time governance, skills development and training, gram volunteers/ward volunteers and village secretariats/ward secretariats departments. He is also managing the general administration (political) department, which is the nodal bureau for postings of IAS, other senior officials.
ThePrint has learnt that the reason for this wait is, in some cases, their alleged deeds or misdeeds favouring the previous Jagan administration and in others “plain perception of being closely associated with the former chief minister, other senior YSRCP leaders”.
There were about a dozen such IAS officers on the bench till two-three months ago, as reported in August.
Apart from Srilakshmi and Revu, the other three officers are D. Muralidhar Reddy (conferred IAS 2006), K. Madhavi Latha (conferred IAS 2014), and K. Neelakanta Reddy (conferred IAS 2023).
Reddy was vice-chairman & MD, Andhra Pradesh Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation and CEO, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty till 19 June. His role in connection with welfare pensions disbursal (following the Election Commission debarring Jagan government’s gram and ward volunteers) ahead of the polls came under the TDP scanner.
Madhavi, the former collector and district magistrate of East Godavari, sources said, is accused by TDP of favouring a prominent YSRCP minister while posted as joint collector, Krishna district. Neelakanta’s last posting was as MD, Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh.
Senior IAS Srilakshmi was among the bureaucrats accused of helping Jagan amass disproportionate assets allegedly through quid pro quo favours when the latter’s father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the undivided Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister.
She was arrested in November 2011, in connection with mining leases granted to firms of former Karnataka minister G. Janardhana Reddy and others. Lodged in a Hyderabad jail till October 2012, Srilakshmi was later exonerated of the charges in the courts.
During Jagan’s tenure, Srilakshmi headed the municipal administration and urban development, and, according to one official, got under some TDP leaders’ skin. She is also said to have aided Jagan’s plan of “destroying the Amaravati capital project over the last five years”.
ThePrint reached the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary through calls, WhatsApp messages about the delay of appointments and whether there was any inquiry against these IAS officers. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
Apart from these five officers, Shamsher Singh Rawat (IAS 1992), who, throughout Jagan’s tenure, was in the finance department as secretary first, then principal secretary and later special chief secretary, is officially “on leave” since mid-June.
In 2021, Payyavula Keshav, the present finance minister and then Public Accounts Committee chairman, had alleged massive accounting lapses pertaining to Rs 41,043 crore in government spendings. Rawat had refuted the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader’s charges, stating that all transactions were according to the AP treasury code.
Many of these in-wait civil servants ThePrint spoke to emphasise that “there is no probe whatsoever—departmental, by vigilance, CID (Crime Investigation Department), or any other agency against them”.
“It is up to the government’s discretion (disregarding us), which we cannot question. So, we continue to wait, hoping for some posting orders soon,” one of the above-mentioned officers told ThePrint.
Though no work is assigned, all these officers, attached to the general administration department, draw their salaries, but cannot avail “facilities like government vehicles, staff”. Some of them were sent as election observers to Maharashtra and Haryana.
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‘Treating like untouchables’
One on-wait IAS officer rued that while they suffer ignominy, Andhra Pradesh cadre-allocated officers Vani Prasad (1995 batch), Vakati Karuna (2004), Ronald Rose (2006), Amrapali Kata (2010), repatriated from Telangana by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in October, “were given good postings within a few days by CM Naidu”.
“(These officers were refusing to join, waging a battle in the CAT and courts). Yet, the CM met them immediately after they reported, while we could not meet him once,” the officer told ThePrint.
Notably, three of the officers—Muralidhar, Neelakanta and Madhavi Latha—are Reddys, the same influential community which Jagan belongs to.
Similarly, Bommineni Anil Kumar Reddy (conferred IAS 2017), who served as the Officer on Special Duty, Pulivendula Area Development Agency, in Jagan’s home-turf YSR Kadapa district, was also kept on wait till mid-November before he was posted as MD of A.P. Swachh Andhra Corporation.
One of the bureaucrats contends that there is no rhyme or reason, “except an intentional, wrongful projection” of the TDP administration’s calculations which keep them away. “Some officers like those who aided Jagan’s Rs 431 crore Vizag palace, or those in sectors like civil supplies marred by corruption continue to be in plum positions. Why are we shunted out, when there are not even specific allegations against us? It is dismaying,” the officer says.
While hoping for a turnaround in Naidu’s perception, which they say could be influenced by two-three top bureaucrats if they wish to, another IAS officer says they are being treated as “pariahs” by most of the fellow IAS officers, “which is more painful”.
“Some turn their faces away as I move to greet, converse, and some aren’t even acknowledging my messages on the phone. These are the very officers I helped or tried much when I was in a power position earlier. Your fellow IAS officers treating you like untouchables is more painful than not getting a posting,” the civil servant told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
