Allowing cadre swap an error: Centre

Hyderabad: The Centre on Wednesday admitted before the Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal that senior IAS officer Satish Chandra was allowed a swap from the Telangana state cadre to the AP cadre in violation of the guidelines prepared by the Pratyush Sinha committee.

Assistant solicitor-general B. Narayana Reddy told the two-member bench comprising B. Venkateswara Rao (judicial) and Ranjana Chowdary (administration), that such illegality cannot be perpetuated and that others should not ask for a repeat of such mistakes as a matter of right.

The bench was dealing with petitions by GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar and others challenging their cadre allotments as well as the guidelines prepared by the Pratyush Sinha committee for dividing the All India Service Officers’ between AP and Telangana state.

Mr Reddy said the committee guidelines specify that in order for an officer to swap cadres, both officials must either belong to the same batch or must possess a similar grade pay.

He said Mr Chandra had swapped places with an officer who did not possess a similar grade pay. Several officials who could not get the state of their choice were questioning the basis for preparing such guidelines.

The AP government has moved the Hyderabad High Court questioning the decision of the TS government not to give any share to AP in the assets and intellectual property of the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University.

The TS government has said that the question of dividing the assets and intellectual property of the varsity does not arise.

Contending that this stance was contrary to the provisions of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the AP government, represented by its secretary to higher education department Sumita Dawra, urged the court urging to suspend operation of the proceedings of the TS government with regard to Telugu University.

The AP government told the court that about 1,198 valuable paintings designed by eminent artists, thousands of Telugu literature books; Talapatra Grandhalu etc. were in the custody of the University, apart from copies of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, old manuscripts and about 85,000 books that included Samavedam, Vidyaranya Vedanta Grantham, Upanishads and Jyothishya.

The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the decision of the Guntur district police in not permitting the Madiga Reservations Porata Samiti to hold a mass hunger strike programme at Tullur mandal of the district on October 8 protesting against the land acquisition by AP government for construction of the new state capital at Tullur.

A division bench was dismissing the plea by a MRPS leader seeking directions to the police to grant permission to its proposed mass hunger strike.