Telangana: IPS officers may get to head top non-uniformed departments

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is keen on appointing IPS  officers to head departments after seeing the performance of Mr C.V. Anand at the civil supplies department.

At the recent police conference, the CM appreciated Mr Anand’s efficiency and said he had saved Rs 850 crore for the government in one year  by checking leakages in the public distribution system.

The CM had started a new practice by appointing Mr Anand to head the civil supplies department last year to the post which is traditionally held by IAS officers.

Mr Rao also lauded the efforts of IPS officer Praveen Kumar who brought international recognition as secretary to social welfare schools by encouraging Poorna Malavath, a tribal student, to climb Mount Everest.

The CM now wants to appoint IPS officers to head the Road Transport Authority, commercial taxes and Excise in the coming days. This has led to resentment among IAS officers who normally head all departments other than those like the police and fire.

Some IAS officers took up the issue with Chief Secretary S.P. Singh and lodged their objection over IPS officers being given administrative posts in non-uniformed departments. The IAS Officers’ Association discussed the issue recently, sources told this newspaper.

“IAS officers have administrative experience while IPS officers have enforcement experience. If IPS officers are appointed to head general departments at the state-level, the IAS officers working in districts have to report to IPS officers, which is not correct as per cadre-level of all India officers,” an IAS officer said.
Though the RTC also has had IPS officers as vice-chairman and managing director for long, it runs up huge losses every year.

The government justifies the losses on the ground that no public transport system in the world earns profits as they provide transport facility to common people at affordable fares.

The government does not allow the RTC to increase fares periodically since it involves political implications. The TSRTC’s proposal to hike fares have been kept pending since the last two years, an official pointed out.