Hyderabad: As many as 13 IAS officers senior to Telangana Chief Secretary (CS) Somesh Kumar, are angry on being bypassed for the post. They are understood to have expressed their unwillingness to work under him. In fact they have conveyed their intention either for independent posts or deputation in the Central government. This situation might be embarrassing for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government led by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR).
KCR appointed Somesh Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre as Chief Secretary of Telangana on 31 December, as the incumbent Chief Secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi retired on the day. Somesh Kumar assumed office at 4.30 pm on Tuesday, without giving any scope of protest by his detractors (seniors) who were ignored for the post. Somesh was the Special Chief Secretary in the Revenue Department.
Somesh Kumar belongs to Bihar and was born on 22 December 1963 and so can be in the post for four more years, that is up to December 2023, or till the conduct of the Telangana Assembly elections that will be held by the time. KCR ignored the claims of several other seniors who were keen on the Chief Secretary’s post, for the sake of giving a long stint to whoever occupied the Chief Secretary’s chair.
However, this has not been taken kindly by the seniors who are not on cordial terms with Somesh Kumar. At least one senior officer, Ajay Mishra, who retires in July this year walked out of a farewell meeting held at the Secretariat on 31 December evening. He is now in the General Administration Department as special CS. Mishra belongs to the 1984 batch IAS.
Mishra and other senior IAS officers who are not ready to accept Somesh as their boss are of the view that the Chief Secretary post should be given purely on the basis of seniority, unless there are charges against the next person in the roster. “The Chief Secretary post is the dream of every IAS officer recruited directly. We would like to sit in that chair even for a day,” remarked one of the senior officers, preferring anonymity.
A few of them called on Telangana Government’s advisor and former Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma on 1 January and conveyed their preference either for independent posts which didn’t require to report to the Chief Secretary or Central deputation. These officers are understood to have not concealed their resistance to work with Somesh Kumar who is known for his pushy style of functioning.
Somesh Kumar has been in the limelight since the formation of Telangana in June 2014, when he was the special officer and commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Immediately, after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Somesh presided over the celebrations of Telangana formation and spent a good amount of money in the decoration of Hyderabad city as GHMC chief.
This pleased Chief Minister KCR and many in the ruling party. Somesh Kumar subsequently implemented some of the schemes of the KCR government so that the ruling TRS could easily win the GHMC elections held one-and-a-half-years later. The phenomenal rise of TRS in Hyderabad city from mere two out of 100 divisions in 2002 to 99 out of 150 divisions in 2016 is partially attributed to the good work done by Somesh.
For a brief time, Somesh was in a low-profile post of Tribal Welfare Department as Principal Secretary, but was shifted to the powerful Revenue Department where he controlled several high-profile wings like excise, commercial taxes, endowments, etc. Somesh Kumar was entrusted with the task of implementing GST in Telangana and he ensured that the tax collections rose substantially.
Even during the recent RTC strike, Chief Minister KCR entrusted on Somesh Kumar the responsibility of holding talks with the employees, instead of constituting a panel of ministers. Somesh led the three-member official panel and officiated for the government. The growing proximity of Somesh Kumar has created some heartburn among a section of IAS officers, but they couldn’t do anything about it.
The IAS officers senior to Somesh Kumar are: B.P. Acharya (1983 batch), Binoy Kumar (83), Ajay Mishra (84), Pushpa Subramaniam (85), Suresh Chanda (85), Chitra Ramachandran (85), Heeralal Samaria (85), Rajeshwar Tiwari (86), Rajiv Ranjan Mishra (87), Vasudha Mishra (87), Shalini Mishra (88), Adhar Sinha (88) and Shanti Kumari (89).
Sources in the government told this newspaper that efforts would be made by Rajiv Sharma and former Chief Secretary Joshi, who has since been appointed as irrigation advisor to the government, to persuade these unhappy officers to continue in their posts. If necessary, Chief Minister KCR, too, would meet them and assure them that Somesh Kumar’s appoint was in no way an insult to them.