Restive babus left to their own devices on the Centre’s fiat

The other day, when the Union Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) asked restive babus to go to the respective Telugu states to which they had been initially allotted upon bifurcation; few would have thought that they would be left to their own devices with hardly any support from their current, or rather, preferred political masters. In Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s silence on the cadre issue has irked bureaucrats who had counted on him to intervene and halt the cadre change orders. A little bird told us that the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is not keen on entertaining the discussion. This being so, it seems Telangana cadre bureaucrats tried their luck with Union Ministers to stop DoPT in their tracks. But their efforts fell flat with no traction at the central level. The buzz is that, given larger bifurcation issues that are still lingering, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy too may just follow DoPT orders so as to refrain from upsetting the apple-cart. Many politicians do feel that these bureaucrats should simply return to their allotted cadres and be done with it. Yet the whispers in the corridors of power suggest that, as things stand, some of the most efficient bureaucrats might find themselves back in Andhra Pradesh, with Telangana left holding the baby, instead of reciprocal cadre change. Amidst all this, some of these bureaucrats are determined to stay put where they are, particularly those in TG, and they might take the legal route to have their way, whether it means approaching the Supreme Court for a stay order or otherwise.