Hyderabad: The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday, taking virtual control of the state administration, transferred four district collectors and 13 IPS officers, including Hyderabad police commissioner C.V. Anand.
The EC also cracked the whip on Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari, relieving her of additional charge for excise, commercial taxes and endowments departments, directing her to appoint full-time principal secretaries by 5 pm on Thursday and submit compliance reports to the EC.
However, it was not immediately clear where the officials were transferred to.
Among others to be transferred were collectors of Rangareddy, Medchal Malkajgiri, Yadadri Bhavanagiri and Nirmal districts, who are officiating as district election officers (DEOs), and police commissioners of Nizamabad and Warangal.
The transfers come after a 17-member team of the EC, led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar convened a series of meetings with CS Santhi Kumari, DGP Anjani Kumar, collectors, SPs, police commissioners and all political parties last week.
EC officials reportedly learnt that liquor sales went up during the Munugode and Huzurabad bypolls, with officials reportedly failing to control the sale during polls. In this regard, it decided to relieve Santhi Kumari of her additional charge as the excise secretary.
The EC decided to transfer Hyderabad top cop C.V. Anand for reportedly failing to take action against Malkajgiri MLA Mynampally Hanumantha Rao, who joined the Congress recently, on a complaint from BJYM, whose treasurer P.M. Sai Prasad claimed to have been roughed up by Mynampally’s supporters.
Then, the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj directed the DGP and Anand to look into the issue, but no action was reportedly taken. Besides this issue, the EC also received several complaints from political parties against Anand, sources said.
Meanwhile, Warangal police commissioner A.V. Ranganath was transferred for allegedly providing false information to the EC on transfers in Warangal, by giving favourable postings to select personnel.
Nizamabad police commissioner V. Satyanarayana, who was recently posted to Nizamabad by the government from Rachakonda, was transferred in view of his track record which includes arresting BJP MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
It was learnt that the EC was also unhappy with Mahbubnagar SP Narsimha, who was questioned over drug smuggling from Goa to Hyderabad, but sought time to explain.
Keeping in mind such incidents, the EC transferred Mahbubnagar SP Narsimha, Gadwal SP K. Srujana, Nagarkurnool SP K. Manohar, Sangareddy SP M. Ramana Kumar, Kamareddy SP B. Srinivas Reddy, Jagtial SP Aaggadi Bhaskar, Mahbubabad SP Gundeti Chandramohan, Narayanpet SP N. Venkateswarlu, Bhupalpalli SP Pulla Karunakar, and Suryapet SP Rajendra Prasad.
The EC also transferred excise commissioner Md Musharraf Ali Faruqui, for allegedly relaxing norms to facilitate liquor shops to stock up before the election code of conduct came into force. Complaints alleged that Ali allowed liquor outlet owners to buy liquor stocks on the basis of post-dated cheques, as against the usual cash payments.
Four collectors, who were transferred include Rangareddy collector S. Harish, Medchal-Malkajgiri collector D. Amoy Kumar, Yadadri collector T. Vinay Krishna Reddy and Nirmal collector Karnati Varun Reddy.
The EC officials also transferred commercial tax department officer T.K. Sandhya Rani.
All the transferred officials were asked to immediately hand over the charge to their second-rank officers.
The development is an unusual one, as the EC generally transfers officials at the returning officer level, but this time around, took it to the district election officer level, who collectors double up as.
Speculations were also rife in bureaucratic circles that the transfer of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri collector T. Vinay Krishna Reddy was on account of the Munugode Assembly bypoll held in November 2022. There were large-scale complaints of blatant misuse of power, huge flow of liquor and money, distribution of money and other freebies to buy votes.
During the Munugode bypoll, Krishna Reddy was working as the collector of Nalgonda district, under which Munugode Assembly constituency falls. Krishna Reddy had faced allegations of failing to take adequate steps to enforce norms during the Munugode bypoll.
Sources attribute the transfer of transport commissioner K.S. Srinivasa Raju to imposing restrictions on TSRTC and private transport operators from hiring vehicles to public meetings organised by Opposition parties.
In the case of Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy collectors, the government swapped S. Harish and D. Amoy Kumar in January 2023 to overcome the procedural hurdle of continuing in the same place for more than three years. Both collectors were retained in the same district.
