Amidst a lot of speculations, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government on Tuesday appointed senior IAS officer Somesh Kumar as the new Chief Secretary.
Orders to this effect were issued in the evening, after chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao signed the relevant file on Tuesday. Somesh Kumar will be Chief Secretary from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023.
He will be succeeding S K Joshi, who will be stepping down from the chief secretary post on attainment of superannuation. The chief minister did not seek any extension of service for Joshi.
Presently, Somesh Kumar is the special chief secretary (revenue) and is also the commissioner of excise.
He had held several positions in the past including the commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Though Somesh Kumar had been allotted Andhra Pradesh cadre during the bifurcation period, he managed to stay back in Telangana by approaching central administrative tribunal.
In fact, there are other IAS officers who are senior to Somesh Kumar and were in race for the chief secretary post. Names of Ajay Mishra, C Parthasarathy and Chitra Ramachandran were also doing rounds for the chief secretary post.
However, KCR preferred Somesh Kumar as he will have long term to serve, offering stability to the government, whereas the other senior IAS officers have only a few months of service and are due for retirement next year.
Interestingly, KCR decided to honour S K Joshi, even after his retirement. He announced that Joshi would be appointed as advisor to the state government on irrigation matters. Joshi had earlier served as Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation).
