The hottest topic among the IAS lobby and the government officials in AP these days is how YS Jagan is dealing with the chief secretaries. There are murmurs that the pliant chief secretaries are getting extensions while those who speak their mind and refuse to ignore the rule book are being shunted out ignominiously.
While who should be the chief secretary is CM’s prerogative, there are certain conventions that no CM till now has ignored, say the government officials. Normally, though the next CS is pre-decided, it is usually kept under wraps and the GO appointing a new CS is issued a day before the outgoing CS demits office. But, in the case of Adityanath Das, the new CS has been announced and a GO is issued almost 20 days before his retirement. Thus, there are two power centres within the administration – one reporting to Adityanath Das and the other pandering to Sameer Sharma who will succeed on September 30. This is unusual, say the IAS lobby.
Adityanath Das’s tenure has been bumpy. He had his run-ins with the CM. On some occasions, it is being said, that GOs were issued without his knowledge. On several occasions he has not even been consulted, say sources. Those close to him said that he was upset over several procedural wrangles in the top echelons of administration.
While it is common knowledge Smeer Sharma is a highly decorated officer and that he has several achievements to his credit. For the past seven years, he is in the Central services working on the Smart City project. Only recently, he has been brought back to the state administration. He would take over on October 1 and will retire by November 30. He could get two extension of three months each.
