Love for Hyderabad doubles for senior babus

Hyderabad: Chief Secretary S K Joshi and Senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar were involved in an interesting interaction pertaining to Central deputation on social media. It attracted attention as Joshi tweeted about the Central Deputation subject.

It may be mentioned here that Arvind Kumar, who is holding the post of Principal Secretary (Municipal Administration and Urban Development) has been offered Central deputation.

However, it may take some more time before clarity is obtained whether the senior officer will continue in Telangana or leave for New Delhi to serve in the Central government.

Arvind Kumar, who is very active on Twitter posting news about his official activities and major announcements besides addressing public grievances, recently tweeted a post comparing pollution levels in Hyderabad and New Delhi.

Highlighting that the Air Quality Index (401) in New Delhi was very high compared to that of Hyderabad (39), he said this was another reason why he loves being in Hyderabad vis-a-vis New Delhi.

Among many others who responded to the senior IAS officer's tweet was his boss and Chief Secretary of Telangana Dr S K Joshi.

He tweeted "Should I take it as you are declining Central deputation offer."

Soon many twitter users joined the discussion. One user by the name Harish Daga urged Minister KT Rama Rao and the CS to try to retain Arvind Kumar in TS. Another user named Srini Battu urged Arvind Kumar not to accept the Central offer. "We don't want to miss you," he said.

It may be recalled that Amrapali Kata (IAS) and Akun Sabharwal (IPS) have gone on Central deputation. Senior IPS officer Soumya Mishra is going to Orissa on deputation after obtaining permission from the Centre and Telangana government is also relieving her from duties.

Government sources said that New Delhi had given Central deputation offers (promotion as Additional Secretaries to Central government) to two senior IAS officers from Telangana with Arvind Kumar being one among them.