Former Andhra Pradesh IAS officer Praveen Prakash (IAS:1994:AP) claims to be facing criminal intimidation under the current political dispensation in the state. He is said to be paying the price for his proximity to the previous YSR Congress party government.
Though Prakash took voluntary retirement soon after the new TDP government under Chandrababu Naidu came to power last year. But the ghost of his past actions seems to have surfaced to haunt him. Prakash now claims he received threatening calls during the present government.
While speaking to a YouTube channel, Prakash claimed that he was threatened with dire consequences if he tried to re-enter the government job by withdrawing his application for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).
Prakash claimed that he received intimidating messages warning him against trying to re-enter government service. He, however, refrained from disclosing the identities of the accused.
He said that he met the then Chief Secretary, Neerabh Kumar Prasad, and conveyed his concerns, but the Chief Secretary advised him against pursuing the withdrawal, saying that even if he applied, the government was likely to reject the request.
Praveen Prakash’s trouble started soon after the Naidu government assumed power in 2024, as he was not given any posting, following which he applied for the VRS within 21 days of worklessness.
Explaining the reason behind seeking VRS, he said he realized that he had lost the confidence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. “I was branded as a pro-YSRCP officer. I thought there was no point in sitting idle and taking a salary without doing any work,” he put it.
Now he claims that he decided to take back his VRS application, as his decision unnerved his family members, and his parents slipped into severe emotional stress. But his decision to request the government to reconsider his VRS opened a new front for attack on him. Now he claims that under the prevailing circumstances, he is forced to stay away from that option.
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