I&PR employees demand revocation of Andhra official’s promotion

Hyderabad: Finding fault with the previous government for providing promotion against the rules to an official LLR Kishore Babu who is from Andhra Pradesh, the employees of the Public Relations Department urged the Chief Secretary to revoke the promotion and revert him to the post of Chief Information Engineer (CIE).

According to the officials from the Public Relations Wing, two posts of Joint Director were upgraded to the post of Additional Directors on September 2, 1992. The officials said that when the two posts of Joint Directors were upgraded, the government intended to provide a channel only to the Joint Directors of the PR wing but not to the Radio Engineer.

The government issued Adhoc Rules in AP Information Service Rules in October 1992 to create a temporary post of Additional Director. Officials said that the department has given promotions to nine Joint Directors as Additional Directors till the bifurcation and one Joint Director after the bifurcation.

They pointed out that LLR Kishore Babu or his predecessors never staked their claims till bifurcation even though the Joint Directors who joined much after them got promotions. “If he was eligible and entitled to be considered for promotion to the post of Additional Director, he or his predecessors would have put forth their claim much earlier”, they said.

The officials further said that at the time of bifurcation, the department furnished two posts of CIE instead of a single solitary post as per the cadre strength of the department. As a result, Telangana got one post of CIE and the second person who was working in the same cadre was posted in AP.

LLR Kishore Babu, who belongs to Andhra Pradesh was allotted to Telangana. He approached the High Court to consider his name for promotion to the post of CIE. Combined seniority of CIE and Joint Directors was prepared and Kishore Babu was promoted to Additional

Director, without taking any amendments to the service rules for including the post of CIE for promotion to the post. Consequently, the government conducted the DPC by preparing the seniority list, without calling for any objections from the feeder categories. The officials said that recently the AP High Court in its interim order stayed providing promotion to the post of Radio Engineer (now CIE) and termed it as an ‘inferior category’ and also upheld GO 397, wherein the feeder category of CIE for the promotion to the post of Additional Director was omitted.