KCR's CMO running short of officers - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad : Ad-hocism is ruling the roost at the office of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Even 10 days after the formation of the State, the appointment of a full team of secretaries in the CMO is yet to be completed.

The CMO is running with just one senior IAS officer and a junior IAS officer holding the fort. There is no clarity on who is taking care of what subjects in the all-important office. The entire administration of the CMO is left to a Principal Secretary-designate whose appointment is yet to be ratified.

The officials, who have been sounded out, are not interested in taking up the assignment in the CMO. A senior IAS officer M Gopal Reddy, who is serving the Madhya Pradesh government, is said to have turned down the request of the Chief Minister to join his team.

The government is falling short of IAS officers and KCR himself admitted that he had to set his house in order as the CMO is yet to be constituted completely. Apparently, the Chief Minister is reluctant to take the officers serving in the State into the CMO.

At present, KCR is being assisted by IAS officers S Narasing Rao and Smitha Sabharwal. While Smitha Sabharwal is given the welfare subject, the remaining subjects have been given to Narasing Rao though his appointment is yet to be ratified due to some technical problems.

Rao, who was serving as Chairman of Coal India, left the job and joined the Chief Minister's team. However, his resignation from the All India Services is yet to be accepted.

Despite having no formal position in the CMO, he has been participating in the Chief Minister's review meeting along with Smitha Sabharwal.

This has raised some eye brows in bureaucratic circles. According to sources, Narasinga Rao is not signing any file but giving advice to the Chief Minister on the administrative affairs.

According to official sources, KCR is said to be keen on taking four to five All India Service officers in his team to assist him in the administration of the State. But, he is not sure whom to induct.

The Chief Minister allocates subjects to his secretaries to examine the files relating to them before they reach him. There is no clarity in the heads of the departments in Secretariat as to whom they should send the files that require to be examined by the CMO.

All the files related to important policy decisions, grants and sanctions should go to the CMO for final disposal. All the matters that need to be taken to the notice of the Cabinet should also go to the CMO.

With confusion prevailing in the CMO, the officers are clueless about the decision making process. On the other hand, there is shortage of IAS officers.

It was provided with 80 officers, whereas the sanctioned strength is about 125. The remaining officers would be allotted to the government after the final allocation of the IAS officers is completed.

The Centre has to create Telangana cadre in the civil services and has to allot officers to it. The present set of IAS and other All India Service officers are working on provisional basis.

Usually, Chief Ministers take IAS officers whom they trust. In the case of Telangana government, KCR is reportedly unable to find officers whom he can rely on.

Secretariat sources said that since he lost contacts with the State administration more than 14 years ago, he is finding it difficult to put together a reliable team of officers.