Strange are the ways of the N Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh.
At a time when at least a dozen senior IAS and IPS officers who put in decades of service are desperately waiting for postings, the Naidu government has claimed that it is facing severe shortage of IAS officers.
According to a media report, Naidu has written at least twice in the recent past to the Central government requesting it to some IAS officials on deputation to address the severe shortage of the officers, but there has been no response.
On November 4, 2024, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu wrote a letter to the Prime Minister requesting the deputation of 10 officers, including four IAS, three IPS, and three IRS officers, to Andhra Pradesh.
He sent another letter on December 25. Even after five weeks, there has been no progress on this request, the report said.
As per the approved cadre strength, Andhra Pradesh should have 239 IAS officers. However, even with the deputation of officers like A V Rajamouli and Krishna Teja from other states, the current number stands at just 191. The shortage of IPS officers is also significant.
The report said several departments like Agriculture, Horticulture, Cooperation, and Marketing have no heads of departments and existing senior IAS officers including chief secretary Vijayanand are holding additional charges.
But what is surprising is that senior IAS officers like Y Srilakshmi, R Muthyala Raju, Muralidhar Reddy, Madhavi Latha, and Neelakanta Reddy have not been given any postings, for the simple reason that they played key role in the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
Similarly, several IPS officers like Kolli Raghurami Reddy, Nishanth Reddy, and Ravishankar Reddy are yet to receive postings.
At the same time, other IPS officers such as PSR Anjaneyulu, N Sanjay, P V Sunil Kumar, Kranti Rana Tata, and Vishal Gunni, have been suspended on charges of irregularities.
It will be better Naidu accommodates these IAS and IPS officers to run the administration, rather than asking for more officers from the Centre.
Let him not give them good positions, but at least use their services wherever there is shortage, so that there will be no additional burden on existing officers.
