A hundi set up by Endowments Department at the entrance to the multi-storeyed ‘L’ block in the Secretariat that houses the offices of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Secretary and Principal Secretaries in the CMO created a mild flutter among IAS and other senior officers heading to their chambers on Saturday morning as it did not have the permission of the government.
The hundi was meant to receive voluntary donations from visitors and officers for the construction of the capital of Andhra Pradesh. The matter was reported to the Chief Secretary who immediately ordered its withdrawal. But, a similar one that was also installed at the Chief Minister’s camp office in Lake View guesthouse was still functioning but it was decided to take a view on it after consulting the Chief Minister. It was later revealed that the endowment officials took the step as it was difficult to assess the value of donations given by Secretariat employees in the form of jewellery for the same purpose.
Civil servants concerned
A suggestion of the Central government to the Union Public Service Commission to postpone the preliminary examinations of civil services due on August 24 is giving quite a few civil servants sleepless nights because their children were preparing for the exams.
Andhra Pradesh, in the past few years, saw the children of several IAS and IPS officers getting selected to civil services. The daughter of an IPS officer also made it to the prestigious Indian Foreign Service a few years ago.
Now that a committee headed by a retired IAS officer Arvind Varma is looking into the change in the syllabus for the exams which is the reason for its postponement, the civil servants are obviously focussed on the recommendations of the panel and how they would impact their children.
Happy news
The news that the Pratyush Sinha committee held its final meeting at New Delhi last Monday to finalise cadre allotment of all-India Service officers between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was a big relief to IAS, IPS and forest service officers, but some of them also had their share of grievance.
The bad news for them was that the Prime Minister who also held the portfolio of personnel and training struck down a suggestion to retain officers in respective States on the basis of their nativity. A ray of hope for them was an assurance reportedly given by the panel that it would include in its report nativity based allotment of officers.
Curious about CAT developments
They may be longing for guidelines to be issued by the Centre by the end of the month, but IPS officers are also focussed on the developments in the Central Administrative Tribunal where a petition by two of their senior colleagues is pending disposal.
The CAT had last week issued an ultimatum to the Centre to respond by July 25 on what basis the provisional allotment of IPS officers between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh took place. The CAT also warned the government that it would dispose of the petition if the deadline was not met.
