Row over Mohanty's report to GoM

Hyderabad: The controversy over an official report sent by the state government to the Group of Ministers looking into the bifurcation process has deepened with its author- chief secretary P.K. Mohanty allegedly washing his hands of it.

“The chief secretary said he merely forwarded reports sent by department secretaries and also offered to forward reports of Telangana employees, if any,” said TNGO president V. Srinivas Goud.
Dr Mohanty reportedly said this when the delegation asked him about it on Thursday.

The report primarily reflected Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s views on contentious issues and explained in many ways how bifurcation would be impossible. It, however, stopped short of opposing the division.

The report primarily contained data from the departments concerned but gave its own interpretation. Sources said a senior state official had personally carried the report to the Union home ministry and handed it over to joint secretary (inter state) Suresh Kumar.

Senior bureaucrats were shocked over the observations of the chief secretary and his reported attempts to distance himself from the report.

“In the first place, we did not favour or oppose division. We just presented facts in our reports on the current status on revenue, employment, power and geographical details of the capital city among other things,” said a senior official.

Officials were of the view that the chief secretary was solely responsible for any report being officially submitted by the state government to the Centre.

Sources said the report suggested the Delhi model of administration in Hyderabad, as joint capital city, where key subjects will be handled by the Centre, providing one lakh acres of contiguous land for the new capital of residuary state of AP, Rs 5 lakh crore assistance from the Centre and defining status of non-locals and reservations for them in both states.