With no top bosses, district governance goes for a toss

Bhupalpally: It's weird but true. Yes, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally district is without a regular Collector for about eight months and Superintendent of Police (SP) for more than one-and-a-half-year.

The State Government, which created smaller districts in 2016 to take the administration to the doorsteps of the people, appears to have forgotten its very concept. Make no mistake, the Collector and the SP play a massive role in dispensing able governance. The State Government appears to have forgotten the very concept of smaller districts with which it wanted to take the administration to the doorsteps of the people.

In November 2020, the State Government transferred the then Collector Md Abdul Azeem and gave full additional charge (FAC) to Mulugu Collector Krishna Aditya. It's alleged that Azeem was shown the door after his style of functioning didn't go well with the ruling TRS party leaders. More or less, Azeem's exit resembled one of his predecessors Akunuri Murali.

Since Azeem's transfer, the in-charge Collector Krishna Aditya has become a regular commuter between Mulugu, his headquarters, and Bhupalpally. The Collector will have to travel 80 kilometres to and fro almost every day.

The additional collector post which was also vacant for some time has been filled with Rizwan Basha Shaik (2017 IAS Batch) four days ago. Interestingly, Kurakula Swarna Latha continues to remain in the joint collector post for some time. She is perhaps the only JC in the State after the government does away with that post.

On the other hand, the SP post is vacant since R Bhaskaran was transferred to Suryapet district. Bhupalpally, which shares the border with Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, is one of the strategic districts that have to deal with the CPI-Maoist insurgency. Mulugu SP Sangramsing G Patil is in full additional charge of the district. This apart, the government didn't appoint a district forest officer (DFO) after the split of Jayashankar-Bhupalpally district until a fortnight ago when B Lavanya, IFS, took charge from Mulugu DFO Pradeep Kumar Shetti who was in FAC. The district has Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) in its territory besides housing abundant natural resources especially sand quarrying which fetches a sizable exchequer to the government.

It may be mentioned here that though Mulugu district was carved out splitting Jayashankar-Bhupalpally in February 2019, it's apparent that the government is yet to see them as two separate entities. Meanwhile, the locals accuse Bhupalpally MLA Gandra Venkatramana Reddy of not showing interest to get regular Collector and SP for the district.