TS Sectt: Shut off from public, netas, media

Telangana’s impressive new Secretariat in Hyderabad was inaugurated by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) on April 30. It has 32 departments which function from this imposing building. It is meant to provide good governance to the people of the state.

For any state, the Secretariat is the nerve centre of governance where the functioning of government is made effective with the help of task-oriented departments. No government can run smoothly without the support of a Secretariat at the Union as well as State levels.

The Secretariat helps the government in policymaking and execution of legislative functions. The State Secretariat is supposed to deal with all matters of general policy; inter-departmental coordination; matters involving the framing of new legal enactments of rules or amendments in the existing ones. Its functions also include interpretation or relaxation of existing rules or government orders; correspondence with the Government of India and other State governments; all matters relating to the preparation or adoption of new plan schemes, and important modifications in the existing schemes; review of the progress of the plan schemes – both physical and financial; inspection reports and tour notes recorded by heads of departments; all India conferences and important conferences at the State level; Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee; Assembly/Parliament questions; delegation of powers; litigation notices under Section 80 CPC; appeals, revisions, etc – all within the powers of the State government.

The Secretariat scrutinises and accords approval of departmental budget estimates, major appropriation of accounts, surrender of funds and supplementary grants; all proposals involving new items of expenditure; financial sanctions not within the competence of heads of departments; sanction of expenditure from contingency fund; write-off cases beyond the powers of heads of department and audit objections regarding the offices of the heads of departments. It also oversees issues pertaining to service matters including framing new rules and amending the existing ones. The General Administration Department takes care of appointments, promotions and transfers of employees at various levels including heads of departments and is responsible for initiating disciplinary action against officers.

The State Cabinet under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister meets at regular intervals to review the performance of the government and take necessary action to implement the ongoing policies and take new decisions in the larger interests of the state. Along with that, being the nerve centre of administration, every State Secretariat has fixed timings where the general public can visit the departments concerned to get their grievances redressed. Similarly, public representatives like MLAs, MLCs and MPs go to the Secretariat to meet Ministers and top bureaucrats in each department to submit memorandum and try to get the problems addressed.

However, the new Telangana Secretariat named after B R Ambedkar has turned into a fortress. There is no entry for public or public representatives. Anyone who wants to enter it should have prior permission from the official concerned and then from the police.

One cannot even meet the topmost bureaucrat, the Chief Secretary or any Minister. This has been the experience of the functioning of the public representatives since April 30. The media which is sermonised by all is the most untouchable section and they are made to sit in a room outside the Secretariat complex. This was never the situation till 2014. All accredited correspondents and photographers and electronic media personnel were allowed inside the Secretariat and they also used to get easy access to meet the ministers or officers for gathering information or news. There used to be a media centre right opposite the block where the Chief Minister’s office was located. There were any number of occasions when the CMs used to stop near the entrance, exchange a few words with the media and then move on.

In fact, those who participated in the movement for separate Telangana know very well how even the then CMs used to come out of the ‘C’ Block and address the employees expressing his inability to do anything in the matter since it was a decision to be taken by the Centre. That was how vibrant and newsmakers the Secretariats used to be. But today it is a silent building and totally out of reach for all others except the ministers and officials who work there.