Few bureaucrats can resist the allure of overseas trips. With the elections fast approaching, several babus have got wonderful opportunities to take a break from their routine work and visit foreign countries. Top babus, including Ramakrishna Rao, Sunil Sharma, Rajat Kumar, and Jayesh Ranjan, have gone abroad. Interestingly, the only Collector to have gone abroad on a study tour is R V Karnan. This has kindled hopes among many a collector and additional collector – local bodies. Young officers are having fond hopes of going abroad in view of the promise made by IT Minister KTRama Rao that some of them would get a chance to goto Singapore and Malaysia to study urban development. The whispers in the corridors of power are that this trip will provide the much-needed respite. Although thereis the inevitable jealousy among those believed to be not in the reckoning for study trips, there are others who are looking forward to a refreshing break topped with loads of fun during their travel abroad.
ACRs haunt eight officials awaiting posting
Currently in Telangana there are at least eight officials who have nagging doubts over their eventual posting. With each passing day, their anxiety levels are going up in view of the potential impact of the Annual Confidential Report (ACR). A little bird told us that the months during which they have not been given a posting will be recorded as ‘Not reported’, which is not a good thing when it comes to ‘service’ records. Among them, the longest wait has been that of Harichandana Dasari, who has been without a post for more than nine months now. Likewise, Shailaja Ramaiyer has not been given posting for eight months now.
K. Hymavathi and Satya Sharada Devitoo have been waiting for posting for two and a half months. K Nikhila has not been given a posting for six months. Jalda Arunasri and Naveen Nicholas have been waiting for posting for five months. Shashank Goel has been awaiting posting for one and a half months.
Investiture of GHMC Commissioner
As a ceremony at which honours or rank are formally conferred on a particular person, investiture is quite common in schools. But a similar event was witnessed recently for anointing the new GHMC Commissioner. At the release of the MA&UD’sannual report, Minister K T Rama Rao bid goodbye to Lokesh Kumar. The pinning of badges to Ronald Rose was done using a double ikat blue shawl by Lokesh in the presence of the Minister. For newbies,investiture in a school prefectorial board takes place after scrutinous interviewing and selection, which gives the recipient of the elaborate honours a feel of functioning full authority. Ronald Rose has worked in GHMC. He has built a reputation as a good and sincere officer. The buzz is that community equations also played a role in the selection of Rose to replace Lokesh Kumar.
Relatives matter
“Give a dog a bad name and hang him” is a time-tested method in politics. It is now seeping into bureaucracy as well. Officials are these days being damned by insinuations that link them to politicians of various stripes. In a bid to make their case strong, opposition parties are now naming prominent or notorious politicos, as the case may be, as ‘relatives’ of targeted officials. For instance, recently it was pointed out that DCP Medchal Sandeep Rao, who had who visited Eatala Rajender’s house over security threat issue, was a ‘relative’ of Rajya Sabha member Santosh Kumar and in a way related to the CM’s family. For newbies, IPS officer A R Srinivas’s sincerity had come under cloud in the TSPSC paper leak case just because he happens to be a neighbour of KTR’s relative.
Strange request
Often officials approach their political masters mainly to continue in their post after their tenure ends or get a better post.
However, in a strange twist to this norm, Chairman and Managing Director of TS Transco & Genco Devulapally Prabhakar Rao, who is known to be in the good books of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for contributing significantly to the power sector in Telangana, reportedly approached Power Minister G Jagadish Reddyto ‘convince KCR to relieve him from his post’. People in the know are surprised at the strange request made by Prabhakar Rao.
