The Telangana government has proposed to extend the tenure of Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao (IAS:1991:TG) by another three months. It sent its proposal to the Centre for approval last week.
Rao is already on a seven-month extension, which is expiring on March 31. He retired in Aug last year. The state govt has now requested a further extension until June.
In order to substantiate his request for an additional three-month extension for Ramakrishna Rao, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has cited examples of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, where retired Chief Secretaries were granted a one-year extension. So, even if Rao is granted the proposed extension, his total extended tenure would remain less than a year.
It is necessary to remind here that Chief Minister Reddy had also personally raised the issue with Union Home Minister Amit Shah when they met in Delhi recently to discuss issues related to surrendered Maoists.
The Home Minister is said to have not given any such assurance of extension but informed the CM that he would bring the matter to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A top IAS officer says that a one-year extension is only an exception for which the state govt is supposed to give reasons for the continuation of any officer, but in an extraordinary case like in UP, even a two-year extension (one year each) was given to the chief secretary in view of elections.
The reason why the Telangana govt is so keen to continue Ramakrishna Rao as Chief Secretary until the end of June is that it has recently launched its ambitious 99-day Praja Palana-Pragati Pranalika programme. This programme is being implemented across the state and will conclude on June 12. The govt thinks that appointing a new chief secretary at this stage would mean delaying the programme as the new incumbent would need time to familiarise himself with the initiative.
But it does not mean that the state govt is sitting idle hoping that the Centre will approve its request. Rather, it is already examining alternative options in case the proposal is not approved. Though there are around 10 senior IAS officers of Special Chief Secretary rank in the state, two 1992 batch IAS officers—Jayesh Ranjan and Vikas Raj—are clear frontrunners.
While Jayesh Ranjan is currently heading the Municipal Administration Department, Vikas Raj is looking after the Transport, Roads, and Buildings Department.
Besides these two, Shashank Goel (IAS:1990:TG) is the senior-most IAS officer in the state cadre, but he is presently serving the Union Govt on deputation and is unlikely to return to the state.
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