Quid pro quo in Telangana CS posting?

[Anta Assamey]

The Congress party on Friday alleged that the appointment of IAS officer Somesh Kumar as Chief Secretary of Telangana government was in total violation of rules and suspected that the appointment could be a quid pro quo deal between him and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) national spokesperson Dr Dasoju Sravan said Somesh Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, was appointed as chief secretary bypassing 15 other seniors, including B P Acharya, Ajay Mishra, Suresh Chanda, Chitra Ramachandran etc.

He pointed out that the government had violated all the precedents, norms and rules pertaining to promotion of IAS officials.

He suspected the appointment to be 'quid pro quo' as Somesh Kumar, as the then Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has allegedly helped TRS win municipal elections in February 2016. 

“There were allegations of deletion of more than 15 lakh voters, inclusion of fake voters, reorganisation and reservation of wards in a partisan manner and other irregularities. We lodged a strong protest against such irregularities while Somesh Kumar was heading the GHMC as its Commissioner,” Sravan pointed out.

The appointment of Somesh Kumar as Chief Secretary indicates that those allegations might be true, he added.