Made to sit idle in Telangana, government officials yearn for work

Hyderabad: Fed up with the attitude of the TS government, an undersecretary of Union Power Ministry who had come on deputation to a department of the state government has now requested to be sent back. 

S. Venkateswarlu was brought in last year by the Telangana state government for his expertise in power and energy. He was appointed special officer in the energy department. 

However, even 10 months after his joining, he has not been assigned any work. Worse, even the Internet connection of his office computer has been deactivated. 

Every day, Mr Venkateswarlu comes to the Secretariat and sits till evening in his office, without any work.  The deputation is for three years and this year, in October, he will complete his first year as special officer. 

Through the last few months he has been repeatedly requesting the authorities concerned to give him work or at least direct him towards assignments. But with no response whatsoever from the powers that be, 

Mr Venkateswarlu has finally given up all hope and has now written to Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, requesting he be relieved from state service and taken back to central service from October 2017. 

Mr Venkateswarlu is an expert in power related issues. It was for this reason alone that the TS government wanted him in the energy wing. So it is more than a bit strange that despite their eagerness to get him to the state service, they have kept him away from doing any good work. 

Mr Venkateswarlu says that he wants to go back to central service for personal reasons. 

Though the government has assured him work and focused assignments, nothing has been done so far. 

Meanwhile, General Administration Department officials say that Mr Venkateswarlu was brought by energy department on deputation without approval from Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. 

They said bringing any official from the Central government on deputation would require the Chief Minister’s approval.