TRS MLAs flood CMO with transfer wish lists

HYDERABAD: The Telangana chief minister's office (CMO) is being flooded with requests from elected representatives of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi to shift several officials and replace them with officials of their choice. Many such transfer requests have been approved despite the fact that some of the officials have been in their posts for less than a year.
The TRS MLAs have been lobbying for their favoured officials in several departments, including revenue, municipal administration, police and panchayat raj, to be posted in their assembly segments.Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who initially did not oblige to the demands of his MLAs, later succumbed to the pressure a couple of months ago. Directions were also issued to CMO officials to take action on all such requests. The chief minister reportedly told elected representatives that it would be a one-time opportunity and officials transferred as per their requests would be immune to further transfers for two years.
Official sources said that armed with the chief minister's clearance, almost all TRS MLAs have started giving their wish lists for transfer of officials in various posts such as municipal commissioners, tehsildars, deputy collectors, police inspectors and mandal parishad officers. "The primary reason the MLAs want the transfers is because most of these officials were appointed during the Congress regime and were not obliging them," a senior revenue department official said.
However, most of these officials, who are being shifted or have been transferred recently, were posted just before the general elections in April-May 2014 on the directions of Election Commission of India (ECI) and have not even completed one year in their posts. They are being allegedly targeted for not acting on the directions of the MLAs.
For instance, a revenue divisional officer (RDO) in the chief minister's home district of Medak was transferred a week ago as he failed to remove fair price shop dealers en masse in an assembly constituency. Two MLAs from Medak district, Padma Devender Reddy, who is also deputy speaker of the assembly, and Babu Mohan, allegedly sought the removal of the RDO. The RDO reportedly faced the MLAs' wrath as he turned down their request to remove nearly 200 fair price shop dealers of the total 600 in Medak revenue division. The MLAs had reportedly sought the removals as they wanted to make room for TRS workers by replacing those appointed during the Congress regime.
Similarly, Vemulawada MLA Ch Ramesh reportedly gave his wish list of nine officers he wanted out of his constituency. While some of the officers, including Vemulawada nagar panchayat (municipality) commissioner were transferred, the others are likely to be shifted in a week.
Apart from this, the municipal administration department has transferred nearly a dozen municipal commissioners in the past couple of weeks. On Wednesday, the state government transferred Nizamabad corporation municipal commissioner Alivelu Manga Tayaru. Similarly, in the last 10 days, municipal commissioners of Peddapalli, Jagityal, Kodad, Narsampet, Khammam, Sadasivpet, Zaheerabad, Andhole-Jaggaipet, Adilabad, Miryalaguda and Gadwal were shifted.
As regards the police department, a circle inspector of Bhongir division was transferred on the request of Bhongir MLA Pyla Sekhar Reddy as he was posted during the Congress rule a year ago. Similarly, circle inspectors of Miryalaguda and Suryapet sub-divisions were shifted even before completing a year's term. Nearly 10 deputy collectors have also been transferred in the past two weeks following requests from public representatives. Government sources said that more transfers are likely within the next month.
Effigy burning leads to transfer
In Karimnagar district, an MLA sought the transfer of an MPDO on the ground that he failed to prevent the burning of the chief minister's effigy by some opposition parties during a protest against farmer suicides and power crisis a month ago. The MLA reportedly complained that the MPDO not only failed to prevent the incident but also did not lodge any complaint with the police.