Hyderabad: Four months after five IAS officers were shown the door from Telangana, three IPS officers have been directed by the Centre to similarly repatriate to Andhra Pradesh, it is learnt.
According to orders from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the three officers asked to relocate to AP are former Telangana director general of police (DGP) Anjani Kumar (1990 batch), currently posted as chairman of the state road safety authority, Abhilasha Bisht (1994 batch), director, Telangana State Police Academy, and Abhishek Mohanty (2011 batch), police commissioner, Karimnagar.
In line with the MHA’s 19 February direction, Telangana Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari on Saturday issued orders relieving Kumar and Bisht from Telangana “with immediate effect, to enable their joining the State of Andhra Pradesh”.
Mohanty’s relieving orders were reportedly put on hold as the state is consulting with the Election Commission since the model code of conduct is in effect in Karimnagar, where the IPS is currently posted as commissioner, for the MLC polls.
One of the IPS officers has told ThePrint that they plan to challenge the orders in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). “Of course I will challenge the orders in the CAT after I review the copy. For now, as the orders are issued, we have no option but to report to AP,” the officer said.
The reallocation of cadres has been an issue since 2014, when Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and the state of Telangana was carved out, and the Pratyush Sinha Committee had administered distribution of 284 IAS, 209 IPS and 136 IFoS officers between the two Telugu states. In October last year—more than a decade after bifurcation and the division of the All India Services (AIS) cadre between the two states—five IAS officers serving in Telangana and three in AP were ordered to switch.
According to the Department of Personnel and Training’s (DoPT’s) orders, Vani Prasad (1995 batch), principal secretary of youth affairs, tourism and culture in Telangana, Vakati Karuna (2004 batch), secretary of the Women, Children, Disabled, and Senior Citizens Welfare department in Telangana, were to report to the AP government in October.
Also on the list were Ronald Rose (2006 batch), secretary of Telangana’s energy department, M Prashanti (2009 batch), additional secretary of the Environment, Forest, Science and Technology department in Telangana, and Amrapali Kata (2010 batch), commissioner, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
At the same time, Chevvuru Hari Kiran (2009 batch), director, Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare, Andhra Pradesh, Srijana Gummalla (2013 batch), collector and district magistrate (DM), NTR district, Andhra Pradesh, and Siva Sankar Lotheti (2013 batch), collector and DM, Kadapa, reported in Telangana.
Kumar, Bisht and Mohanty too were originally allocated to AP. Kumar, who has “not reported in AP” since 2 June 2014, according to the AP IPS civil list, is the senior most officer there.
Kumar was appointed the Telangana DGP in December 2022 by former Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao. However, the Election Commission of India suspended Kumar, after he called on then Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Revanth Reddy with a bouquet on 3 December 2023, even as the counting of votes in the state was in the early stages.
The ECI revoked Kumar’s suspension after the latter tendered an apology, and the Telangana government under CM Reddy made a recommendation.
Though IPS officers Kumar, Bisht and Mohanty were also expected to be sent back to AP in October last year, the MHA, which is the nodal body at the Centre for IPS, for reasons unknown, deferred the orders which were eventually issued this week.
In October last year, a Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) communication addressed to one of the IAS officers said that he stands relieved from the Telangana government with immediate effect. “He is to be directed to join the State Government of Andhra Pradesh latest by 16.10.2024,” said the 9 October order addressed to the Telangana chief secretary.
Years-long dispute
Challenging their final allotments made in accordance with the Pratyush Sinha Committee recommendations in 2014, around a dozen IAS and IPS officers of undivided Andhra Pradesh had obtained relief from the CAT to serve in the state of their choice.
Each of the aforementioned eight IAS and three IPS officers had put forward their respective grievances regarding the Pratyush Sinha panel guidelines before the CAT.
For instance, Mohanty’s petition, while not challenging the guidelines, complains of erroneous implementation, saying the panel denied him a Telangana cadre, the state he was born and brought up in. The IPS officer served as superintendent of police (SP), Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh till 2021, before Telangana took him in based on the CAT orders.
Bisht, meanwhile, is aggrieved by her allocation to AP, reducing her seniority.
Following relief from the CAT, these officers, who were apportioned either to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, but have been serving in their chosen state all these years.
The Centre had in 2017 challenged the CAT orders, which provided relief to these officers, in the Telangana High Court. Hearing the Centre’s petitions, the court, in January 2024, disposed of all petitions related to the allotments, while upholding the Pratyush Sinha panel guidelines and criticising CAT’s overreach of setting aside cadre allotments.
“The tribunal was not justified in allocating respondents/officers to the states on its own. The tribunal ought to have remanded the matter to the Union of India to re-examine each and every individual case in terms of the observations made by it and also pass appropriate orders strictly in accordance with the approved guidelines,” the court order said.
The high court further said that the officers’ cases deserve to be reconsidered for final allocation strictly in accordance with the guidelines framed based on the Pratyush Sinha Committee recommendations.
Asking the Centre to take note of aggrieved officers having spent a decade already in the state of their choice, it directed that the respondents/officers be granted a personal hearing to raise legal aspects before orders are passed in accordance with the law.
In compliance with the directions, the DoPT, in March 2024, constituted a single-member committee for reconsideration of final allocation of these AIS officers in accordance with the Pratyush Sinha Committee guidelines and recommendations. The single-member committee had Deepak Khandekar, IAS (retd.), former secretary, DoPT.
After considering the officers’ submissions and personal hearings, the Khandekar committee recommended the DoPT reject the pleas of those who sought cadre allotment in the state they were serving in at the time.
“The hearing in my case, as it appears was with others too, was wrapped up within minutes. It appeared perfunctory,” one of the AIS officers told ThePrint.
After the Telangana HC order, the DoPT under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions—the central watchdog monitoring service conditions, postings and transfers of AIS officers—accordingly rejected the claims of officers who had challenged the reallocation of their cadres.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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