N. Chandrababu Naidu questions chief secretary meet with DG

Hyderabad: Thursday visit by AP chief secretary L.V. Subrahmanyam to the police headquarters seems to have not gone down well with AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who made his displeasure known during a press conference on Friday.

Taking the bureaucracy by surprise, Mr Naidu remarked: “The CS goes to the DGP (office). What are you doing? Evening, there is violence and CS goes to the DG...”

This brings up a question: Is it wrong for a chief secretary, the head of the state administration, to visit the police headquarters?  

“The chief secretary has every right to visit any office he wants to and he is supposed to know how law and order is maintained using modern technology. As the chief secretary, even I have paid a visit to the DGP’s office,’’ retired chief secretary Mohan Kanda told DC.

He said that since the CS is the head of the Secretariat, he was well within his rights to visit the police headquarters.

Like Mr Kanda, many retired IAS officers praised Mr Subrahmanyam. “The DGP is not out of the bounds of law and is one among the officers who reports to the CS. Subrahmanyam is an excellent officer and honest bureaucrats like him are getting caught in the political crossfire,’’ felt Mr Raymond Peter, who retired as special chief secretary.

Mr Naidu even described Mr Subrahmanyam, appointed CS by the Election Commission recently, as a co-accused along with YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the Emaar case. The High Court has quashed all proceedings against the senior IAS officer.

“The chief secretary has every right to visit the police headquarters. If somebody is taking objection to it, then it is not a proper and correct appreciation of the rule position and administrative process,’’ former chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao told this newspaper.

The chief secretary did the right thing and he was discharging his legitimate duty, he said. “In fact, as the head of the administration the CS is expected to do this.”

On Thursday, Mr Subrahmanyam had sent in a word to DGP R.P. Thakur that he would be paying a visit to his office to learn about the command and control centre that functions from the police headquarters.

It is not only IAS officers, even IPS officers who have served as DGPs said there was nothing wrong with the visit of the CS. “A goodwill visit is probably misunderstood,” felt former DGP K. Aravinda Rao.

Former DGP of AP B. Prasada Rao said that as per protocol, a DGP comes after the CS. “The DGP reports to the CS and the CS is well within his rights to go visit any department. What is wrong with this,” Mr Rao wondered.

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