IAS officers speak their mind at review meetings by Chandrababu Naidu

Hyderabad: Unlike in the past, senior IAS officers have become vocal at review meetings conducted by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and are expressing their opinions frankly on various issues. 

In the past, most IAS officers kept silent except on issues pertaining to their departments. The situation has changed now, and Mr Naidu is said to be taking the comments positively. Revenue principal secretary J.C. Sarma who never speaks on controversial issues, surprised his senior colleagues by making sensational comments at a recent review meet. Sources said Mr Sarma told the CM that honest officers were not getting importance and good postings unless they were influential.

Mr Naidu, in reaction, said, “No, it is not like that. Everyone will get importance. In the Godavari Pushkaralu all officers were given importance.” Special chief secretary Ajeya Kallam is generally very critical at the review meetings and Mr Mr Naidu pays attention to what he says. 

When administration issues came up for discussion recently, Mr Kallam said the government has to first make all gram panchayats as village secretariats. The government has to ensure employees at the village level sit in the gram panchayat office only. Then the government will get all the information at one place. The CM also need not tour the districts for information on various subjects.

Accepting this, Mr Naidu said, “This is a good suggestion.” Mr Kallam also opposed proposals like selecting the capital city developer through the Swiss Challenge method, paying incentive arrears to industries, and others.

Special chief secretary B. Sambob is also very critical some times. He once told the CM, “Sir, you are going to the Centre and meeting various ministers. No one is informing us about what decisions have been taken in those meetings and we are not able to follow up. We are coming to know all the decisions through newspapers and we cannot believe 100 per cent on what appears in news papers.

Mr Naidu accepted his observation and said that he will take necessary steps to keep officials informed about government decisions. Some other officials are also expressing their opinions on various issues.