Kangana’s day out
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s three-day lecture series in the national capital had a packed audience. To avoid any inconvenience to the guests, the Sangh had done ‘one-to-one’ marking, deputing a volunteer each to look after each of the 1,160 invitees.
While those in government weren’t invited as their security details would cause inconvenience, Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Anupriya Patel showed up; so did Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde and senior BJP leader Jay Panda, among a few others.
Diplomats queued up too. The swayamsevaks ensured those from Ukraine sit at a distance from Russians and the latter seated separately from Americans, and the Chinese at a distance from the Americans.
Kangana Ranaut, the actor-turned-BJP MP from Mandi sat through the first two days of the lecture series. Her presence at the event didn’t go down well with many swayamsevaks though. Not just because the Sangh had reservations about the BJP giving her a ticket to contest the 2024 general election, but also because she was in the national capital when heavy rains were wreaking havoc in her constituency in Himachal Pradesh.
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Going around UPSC
Earlier this year, the UPSC submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court mentioning all those states who had not complied with the top court’s guidelines for the appointment of DGPs. According to the guidelines, states are supposed to send a list of IPS officers to the UPSC, which then short lists three officers from the pool.
The states are then free to appoint one of the three officers as the DGP.
However, the rules are often flouted with states increasingly appointing acting DGPs while circumventing the UPSC.
Of the eight states that the UPSC had marked as defaulters last year, Telangana, West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are learnt to have complied with the rules in recent months.
However, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are still defaulting. Sources in the Centre admit that it has few options if the states refuse to comply despite notices. As examples of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, which have come up with their own rules, have shown.
Homecoming for Andhra IAS officer
After over 10 years of uncertainty, Siva Sankar Lotheti, an IAS officer of the 2013 batch, has finally been reallocated to his home state and preferred cadre of Andhra Pradesh, bringing to an end the long-drawn case in the Telangana HC and Hyderabad Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
Following the CAT orders in February directing it to send Lotheti to AP and the HC upholding the orders in July, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) had to comply and issued orders Thursday re-allocating Lotheti, from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh Cadre.
While Lotheti is jubilant and packing his bags to move to Amaravati, his repatriation orders have given hope to a few other IAS officers eagerly waiting for the conclusion of their cases. These officers were distributed between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana cadres in 2014. Post the bifurcation, following Pratyush Sinha Committee recommendations.
But challenging their final allotments, over half a dozen IAS officers obtained relief from the CAT to function in the state of their choice till 2024. However, in October 2024, following an order passed by the Telangana High Court, the DoPT ordered these officers to repatriate to Telangana from Andhra Pradesh and vice versa.
Lotheti, along with Chevvuru Hari Kiran (2009 batch) and Gummella Srijana (2013 batch) came to Telangana, while Vani Prasad (1995 batch), Vakati Karuna (2004 batch), Ronald Rose (2006 batch) and Amrapali Kata (2010 batch) went to Andhra Pradesh.
While a couple of above officers are said to have come to terms with their present cadre, others are congratulating Lotheti while praying for the same result in their case.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)