Santhi Kumari appointed as Chief Secretary of Telangana

Hyderabad: Senior IAS officer A Santhi Kumari has been appointed as the Chief Secretary of Telangana. The IAS officer is reported to take charge as the Chief Secretary on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Santhi Kumari, a 1989 batch officer rushed to Pragati Bhavan in order to make her last-minute efforts to try her luck. An announcement from Chief Minister Office on the name of new CS is expected anytime now.

There were reports that, Ramakrishna Rao would succeed Somesh Kumar as Chief Secretary of Telangana Government.. Others in the race were MA&UD Special Chief secretary Aravinda Kumar and Ramakrishna Rao.

It is to mention here that in a major administrative development, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday quashed the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad, staying allotment of senior IAS officer and state Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Somesh Kumar, who is to retire in December 2023, is learnt to be against going back to AP and is likely to seek voluntary retirement following which the possibility of appointing him as another advisor is also not ruled out.

Somesh Kumar has been playing a major role in implementation of various schemes being implemented by the government.

This decision at a time when the government was to face elections next year has come as a major shock and setback for the state government.

The High Court also refused to give time to Somesh to go in for an appeal. Following this the Department of Personnel, Government of India, issued an order relieving him from the post of Chief Secretary Government of Telangana and asked him to report in Andhra Pradesh by Thursday.

In 2016, CAT had allocated 13 All India Service Officers to the state who were originally allotted to Andhra Pradesh which includes Somesh Kumar, Anjani Kumar IPS, Abhilasha Bisht IPS, Abhishek Mohanty IPS, Ronald Rose IAS among a few.