HYDERABAD: The cadre allotment for All India Services (AIS) officers between the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana continues to be a bone of contention even as the Telangana High Court is scheduled to take up a case filed against the very continuation of Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and a few other officers in Telangana on Wednesday.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) filed the case challenging a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that changed the cadre of the Chief Secretary and other officials to Telangana though they were originally allotted to AP cadre. The DoPT filed the case more than four years ago but it never came up for hearing in the court so far.
Ironically, the Chief Secretary who has been surviving in Telangana on a CAT order will also have to appear in person before the same CAT on February 25 to explain why he did not implement another order of the CAT that facilitated the shift of cadre of IPS officer Abhishek Mohanty from AP to Telangana just on the lines of Somesh Kumar. Mohanty got a favourable order from CAT about four months ago and got himself relieved from AP cadre but the Telangana government has not taken him in.
“The action of the contemnor (Somesh Kumar) amounts to selective discrimination and is unjust and inequitable in addition to being contemptuous,” alleged Mohanty in his petition filed before CAT pressing for contempt.
The officials were concerned about the discriminatory approach of the top brass of the administration in implementing the CAT orders on cadre shifting. For instance, senior bureaucrat Y. Srilakshmi was allotted Telangana cadre but obtained an order from CAT to shift to AP cadre and Somesh Kumar implemented the CAT order within five days and relieved Srilakshmi. “Whereas the same promptitude is not shown by the contemnor (Somesh Kumar) in the instant case (of Mohanty) even after lapse of more than 90 days of the issue of CAT order,” alleged Mohanty.
The DoPT was also to be blamed for the mess up, said a retired bureaucrat, questioning its silence over Srilakshmi’s cadre shift. “The DoPT at least challenged the CAT order in the High Court in case of Somesh Kumar and others though it never bothered to pursue the case. But, in the case of Srilakshmi, the DoPT did not even challenge the CAT order,” he added.
