Vijayawada: While the Chief Minister left for Davos to attend the investors meet, the bureaucrats have also boarded the aircraft for Hyderabad and New Delhi to get their pending works cleared.
In case the Chief Minister is in capital city, the bureaucrats will have a tight schedule of attending meetings and submitting progress reports as desired by the CM. The chief secretary, who is scheduled to retire in February, has reportedly made some recommendations to the Chief Minister over the transfers and postings. The aspirants for the position of district collectors have started lobbying to get lucrative postings.
In fact, after May last, a few transfers of significance had taken place and this January is said to be crucial for several IAS officers who have been waiting for lucrative postings.
Everybody knows that principal finance secretary P.V. Ramesh of 1985 batch was reportedly dealt in an unpleasant way in May last and he was one among the 10 IAS officers who got either transferred or given new postings.
Five officers on wait for sometime were given postings while four senior officers were given charge of additional departments. Some central service officers were also shuffled at that time. Mr Ramesh was made principal secretary, environment, forests, science and technology depa-rtment by that time and since then, he was reportedly annoyed.
He was also designated as ex-officio principal secretary to the Chief Mini-ster to handle (bifurcation-related) issues pending with the Centre. One more senior-most bureaucrat Ajeya Kallam of the 1983 batch has been brought back to the finance department as special chief secretary in the month of May apart from his position as Special CS (commercial taxes, excise, stamps and registration).
Now, the bureaucrats are anticipating a big magic to happen after January 25 as the CM will come back with new energy after his Davos visit. Meanwhile, officers who had been to New Delhi for lobbying have reportedly started their efforts to get important positions.
Loyalty, obedience to TD will pay dividends
Several IAS officers are eagerly waiting for the second round of transfers expected after January 25. Some of them have reportedly started lobbying through key BJP leaders at the national level, which has generated a kind of interest among the Cabinet ministers.
Earlier, there was no such practice of lobbying, a Telugu Desam politburo member said and added that exerting pressure through political lobbies somehow was a suffocating trend, following which the Chief Minister has been postponing the transfers and postings issue.
In the recent DSP-level transfers, he said that all Telugu Desam district incharges were issued oral instructions from the TD high command to find suitable officers for the key police sub-divisions in their respective constituencies.
On the same lines, this time a few IAS officers want to approach important leaders of the BJP and the NDA for the lucrative postings. In fact, the transfers and postings ranging from DSPs to top cops have taken place a month ago.
Several MLAs and ministers have approached the CMO and DGP office in this regard at that time and the CMO has sent some recommendations to the DGP office.
The ruling party public representatives and TD district presidents are entrusted with new responsibilities of finding loyal police officers to the government some six months back. A set of guidelines also have been issued to the party leaders district-wise, as to how to pick up inspectors or station house officers and DSPs in the sub-divisions which are lying vacant.
“The recommendations are made as per the requirement of the party,” a TD senior leader said. The identified DSPs, who were given postings, were reportedly asked to support the cause of the TD cadres and leaders whenever necessary in their respective police sub-divisions, he added.
A few top cops also were transferred and given new postings, the sources said, and added that their postings were done purely based on loyalty factor.
Interestingly, a few IAS officers, especially from non-Telugu speaking states, have started lobbying through New Delhi sources this time, which appears to be strange, according to a senior IAS officer.
