Hyderabad: Former Chief Secretary of Telangana Somesh Kumar has managed to raise the suspense regarding his posting.
Following a court order, the Center directed him to report to the Andhra Pradesh government, following which he met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday – but he is yet to join duty.
Bureaucrats said Kumar’s apparent reluctance to move to Andhra Pradesh, the cadre allotted to him after the state’s bifurcation in 2014, stems from his closeness to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
“Somesh Kumar is a taskmaster, a delivery-oriented officer. When he is entrusted with a particular task, he makes sure that he completes it, no matter how difficult it is for him. Such a chief secretary is a boon for any chief minister.
Kumar, an All India Service officer of the 1989 batch, was Appointed As the Chief Secretary of Telangana till the end of 2019. He was appointed to the top post, superseding several senior officers of the state.
Kumar shifted to Telangana after the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), allotted to the Andhra Pradesh cadre at the time of the state’s bifurcation, accepted his petition for posting in the state.
But in 2017, the Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) filed A petition in the Telangana High Court against the CAT order to send Kumar to Telangana.
In a setback for Kumar last week, on January 10, the Telangana High Court quashed the CAT order allotting Kumar to the Telangana cadre. The DoPT passed an order on the same day freeing Kumar from the state and asking him to join Andhra Pradesh within 48 hours.
Kumar, whose term ends in December this year, met Andhra Chief Minister Reddy on Thursday. After reporting to the state, he told the media, “No post is big or small, I will take whatever post I get.”
When asked whether he would join the Telangana government as an advisor (if he takes voluntary retirement), he replied that “no decision has been taken yet, whatever comes in progress, we are going to take it”. have been”.
The Telangana government on Wednesday appointed A Shanti Kumari as the new chief secretary, the first woman to hold the post since the formation of the state.
Read also: New Telangana Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari: ‘Low-profile’, once ‘wrongly’ shunted for Covid
raising eyebrows
One of the biggest controversies of Somesh Kumar’s career pertains to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) allegation of deletion of lakhs of voters when he was serving as its commissioner in 2014.
While commissioner, Kumar was implementing the Election Commission’s (EC) National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Program, which was linking Aadhaar with voter ID cards. Allegations of deletion of voters’ names have been there since the inception of the project.
Telangana opposition party alleged In January 2020, soon after Kumar’s appointment as the state’s Chief Secretary, the post was announced for “helping” the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then called the Telangana Rashtra Samithi under the leadership of CM Rao) in the February 2016 GHMC elections. There was a compensation for
In November 2015, in the wake of complaints accusing Kumar of deleting voters’ names from the Seemandhra region (including those mainly from Andhra), he was moved out of the GHMC and transferred to the tribal welfare department. After this, the Election Commission demanded action against him. 7 lakhs Voters’ names were reportedly deleted from the list.
Months after the BRS came to power in the first elections in Telangana in 2014, Kumar was also instrumental in the implementation of Chief Minister KCR’s ‘Intensive Household Survey’ across the state. The survey, however, attracted Tanks that can destroy planes from the opposition, who said Rao had planned it to identify people in Seemandhra.
There was also apprehension among the people of the state as to why the survey was being conducted and why they should give personal information.
“It was an exercise in data collection. And Somesh Kumar as GHMC commissioner certainly played a key role in carrying out this survey in Hyderabad and its limits. KCR and Somesh grew close at that time.”
While being the commissioner, Kumar was also Appointed in 2014 as ‘Special Officer’ of GHMC, which gave him executive control and powers to take all kinds of decisions till GHMC elections.
“In the process of working, he (Somesh Kumar) is very strict with the people working under him. Ultimately, he ensures that the work given to him is completed,” said another bureaucrat, who wished to remain anonymous.
Impressive KCR
Prior to 2014, Kumar had also held the portfolios of Tribal Welfare (first term) and Collegiate Education, and as the Collector of Anantapur district. The bureaucrats said that he maintained a low profile and his association with KCR began in 2014.
Like many other officers, Kumar did not want to be transferred out of Hyderabad after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Currently, Telangana has at least six All India Service officers who belong to the Andhra Pradesh cadre but are serving in Telangana, including newly-appointed Director General of Police Anjani Kumar.
“When KCR took over as chief minister in 2014, he wanted the existing bureaucrats to continue in their roles, especially those officers who had pending years of service. The reason was that Telangana was a new state and he wanted to provide some stability to the government officials who would be around for a few years till the new state takes shape,” said a senior bureaucrat.
“And naturally, many other officers, including Kumar, did not want to leave Hyderabad and relocate to Andhra. There were also apprehensions about working under the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu.
One of Kumar’s key postings was as Principal Secretary, Revenue, Commercial Taxes and Excise in 2018.
According to sources, while looking after the excise department, Kumar managed to impress KCR. He initiated policies that increased the revenue of the state by a huge margin.
In 2017, when Kumar was the Principal Secretary of Telangana Government Introduced an annual fee for liquor shops in some areas – the Retail Shop Excise Tax – which among other steps proved lucrative for the KCR government.
Excise revenue of Telangana under Kumar’s watch in 2017-2018 increased 40 percent over the previous year.
“By doing all this, Kumar managed to get into the good books of the chief minister – he was noticed by KCR,” said an official.
Kumar was to serve as the Chief Secretary of Telangana for four years till the end of 2023 and it was decided to keep him for such a long term means to ensure Stability in state administration.
Kumar’s reinstatement in Andhra Pradesh comes at a time when Telangana is gearing up for assembly elections due later this year and amid rising tensions between KCR’s BRS and the BJP.
Following Kumar’s transfer to Andhra, Telangana BJP leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy said that “democracy would be the biggest gainer from this”.
Reddy was among those who filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Kumar over deletion of voters’ names. it was Claimed that “Kumar got off lightly under the tutelage of CM KCR at that time”.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)