Babus decry targeting of CS

Hyderabad: The IAS community is left bewildered at the developments taking place on the bifurcation issue with Chief Secretary P K Mohanty being targeted by some sections of the politicians. The privilege notice moved against Mohanty came as a major jolt for senior IAS officers who are worried over the turn of events wherein bureaucrats are being made scapegoats.

The Chief Secretary has, in fact, completed the task assigned to him in a record time without violating any official procedures in dispatching the letter addressed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Presidential reference and the draft AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 to the Legislature.

Under the normal procedure, the Bill would have taken at least a week to reach Speaker Nadendla Manohar and Council chairman A Chakrapani. The Chief Secretary, who understood the sensitivities involved in the issue, has made sure the draft Bill and the accompanying documents reached well within the time as advised by the Union Home Ministry. In fact it was delivered within record time and got appreciation from the Centre.

For the hard work he himself did and kept the officials concerned on their toes, the Chief` Secretary was made to stand at the receiving end instead of getting the appreciation that his work deserved, senior IAS officers claimed. It is unfortunate and shocking to the bureaucrats that such a senior official with highest integrity is targeted and is being dragged into the political turmoil.

Officials privy to the development recalled how the Chief Secretary responded after Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry Of Home Affairs, met the CS and delivered the draft Bill and the accompanying documents around 6.22 pm on Thursday, December 12. No violation – Absolutely no delay in sending the draft bill to assembly.

The Chief Secretary, without wasting a single minute, on his part, convened an emergency meeting with the Law Secretary and Secretary (political) on the course of action to fulfil the advise given by the Union Home Ministry to ensure that the copies reached the members before 5.30 pm on Friday. As per the advice of the Union Home ministry, the CS has taken up the matter with the Governor’s office, the CM’s office and the Legislature Secretariat immediately.

The Chief Secretary, who swung into action had ensured that the team of officials completed the task of delivering the copies of i) The letter of the Home ministry ii) Presidential reference iii) Draft bill to Chief Minister, Governor and Legislature Secretariat, duly obtaining the acknowledgments, in a record time.

According to reliable sources, some of the senior officials opined that, if the adjournment of the House had not taken place, the above copies would have been delivered to the Assembly during the business hours only.

In fact, the Centre appreciated the CS for expediting the process of sending the draft Bill to the House ahead of the time schedule. The team of officials worked through the night into the wee hours to ensure that all the procedures were put in place. In fact, the entire exercise was completed within a few hours, not a week as normal procedure of circulating files would mandate, and the draft Bill and accompanying documents were sent to the Legislature secretariat by 2.15 pm on Friday.

They wondered how the Chief Secretary could be held responsible if the Assembly was adjourned without transacting any business. When contacted, some of the senior IAS officials are surprised over the tendencies in targeting the bureaucracy for the reasons beyond their control. Senior officials expressed concern over the recurrence of such incidents in the State and called for a National Debate for exempting the bureaucrats from such unsavoury incidents.

They are of the view that there should be a clear demarcation on the jurisdiction of the legislature so that they do not interfere with the work of bureaucrats that involves more of evolving delivery systems to reach out the promises made by the governments concerned to targeted beneficiaries.

It took 14 days for the MP Reorganisation Bill to reach from the Chief Secretary to the Assembly as told by Digvijay Singh at Gandhi Bhavan.