Their colleagues in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh are already slogging it out as the new Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is going about his official work at a super fast pace, but back in Telangana, it is vacation time for several bureaucrats.
If Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and senior IAS officer Rajat Kumar, who was super busy with the elections, is off to Germany where he is chilling out with his family over the world famous German Apple Strudel, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar is off to Canada to see the 553-metre world famous CN Tower! Similarly, senior IPS officer B. Shivdhar Reddy is on a 50-day visit to the US, like his colleagues in the IPS fraternity — K. Sreenivasa Reddy and Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat, who are also on a US tour.
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary IT, was recently on a vacation with his wife Ruchi and daughter Ishika in Israel
This could perhaps be the first time that so many babus are on vacation all at the same time! “All of us were waiting for the Lok Sabha elections to get over. Most of us had applied for leave much in advance. There is also a reshuffle of IAS and IPS officers and we wanted to take a vacation before that. But yes, too many of us are on leave or will just return from leave at almost the same time,” quips a senior IAS officer. For many of them, election time meant long and extra hours of work, with the workload clearly taking a toll on them.
“The last nine months were extremely challenging for me. It is important to spend quality time with the family to get back one’s focus and a sense of balance,” says Rajat Kumar, who is presently on a 20-day vacation in Germany along with his wife Achala Kumar to visit son Rohit Kumar, who works in Amazon in Munich. “During the elections, my work stretched from 16 to 18 hours a day,” he says.
Mahesh Bhagwat and Anjani Kumar
For Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, it is both a vacation and a family obligation. He and his wife Vasudhara Sinha, an IRS officer, are on a 15-day trip to Canada to attend their son’s graduation ceremony. “As Hyderabad Police Commissioner, he too remained super busy during elections — both Assembly and Lok Sabha and needed a break. His son’s graduation ceremony came at the right time,” says an official close to Anjani Kumar. In fact, another senior IPS officer Jitender, who is holding additional charge as Commissioner of Police till Anjani returns, is said to be planning a trip once the latter is back to Hyderabad.
Another IPS officer, B. Shivdhar Reddy, who was recently promoted to the rank of Additional DGP, is on a 50-day trip to the US. “He too has gone on a family vacation and had applied for leave much in advance,” says an official. Meanwhile, like Shivdhar, IPS officer K. Sreenivasa Reddy is also on a 45-day holiday to the US. “Both plan to cover many cities in the US during their trips,” adds the official.
On the other hand, police officer Ravi Gupta, who was on a week-long trip to Australia, just returned from his holiday. As in the case of Anjani Kumar, Ravi Gupta and wife Anjali went to attend their son’s graduation ceremony while making the most of their trip to the country. Even Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar just returned from a 10-day holiday. A senior bureaucrat says, “It may be vacation time now for many of us but once we are all back, it is going to be work and work alone. Since there is a reshuffle of bureaucracy on the cards, everyone will be back to take charge of their new assignments afresh.”
