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Jagan govt, AP poll panel at loggerheads as nominations for local election begin

By, Hyderabad
Jan 29, 2021 09:19 PM IST

The SEC transferred senior IAS officer Praveen Prakash, principal secretary in the chief minister’s office.

The ongoing cold war between the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh and state election commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar took a serious turn on Friday with the latter transferring senior IAS officer Praveen Prakash, principal secretary in the chief minister’s office.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy(File photo)

The order evoked sharp reactions from chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's camp, even as the nomination process for the first phase of elections to 32,504 wards across 3,249 gram panchayats began in the morning.

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Prakash, considered as the most powerful bureaucrat in the CMO, is also principal secretary (political) in the general administration department, responsible for the transfer of IAS officers as per the instructions from the chief minister.

In his letter to chief secretary Adityanath Das, the state SEC said Prakash, being the head of the general administration (political) department, should implement the SEC's orders on the transfers but had deliberately ignored his duty.

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The CMO official was primarily responsible for scuttling the video conference convened on January 23 meant to review the poll preparedness as well as to impart instructions to the collectors, he charged.

Ramesh Kumar said Prakash had instructed the collectors, SPs and other officials not to participate in the SEC meetings and not to cooperate with the poll process as well. He reminded that in the past too, there were instances of Prakash disobeying the Election Commission of India when he was the district collector of Visakhapatnam.

“Since he is the fulcrum of administration, directly dealing with collectors and SPs and privy to influence their action, the SEC has felt that his continuance is prejudicial to free and fair elections,” Ramesh Kumar said and ordered Prakash's transfer with immediate effect.

“He is barred during the course of the elections to have an interaction with district collectors and superintendents of police or any other officers who either directly or indirectly deal with matters relating to the polls," he said.

A couple of days ago, the SEC issued orders censuring two senior IAS officers – principal secretary of panchayat raj Gopala Krishna Dwivedi and commissioner M Girija Shankar - for failing in their duties in the revision of electoral rolls in the state which led to the denial of voting rights to over 3 lakh new voters.

He even wrote to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) in the Centre, recommending compulsory retirement of these two IAS officers. However, the Jagan government rejected the censure proceeding stating that the SEC had no authority to censure the serving IAS officers as per the All India Services rules. It also wrote to the Centre not to accept the SEC recommendations.

Escalating the confrontation further, Ramesh Kumar on Friday wrote a letter to Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichandan, asking for sacking of state panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and advisor (public affairs) to the state government Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy for allegedly making derogatory comments against the SEC.

Reacting strongly to a series of orders issued by the SEC, Ramakrishna Reddy said the SEC had crossed all his limits in taking action against the IAS officers. “He lacks basic decency and culture and is behaving like a stooge of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu. Does he want to conduct the elections with TDP agents?” he asked.

YSRC general secretary and parliamentary party leader V Vijay Sai Reddy alleged that Ramesh Kumar had gone "mentally deranged". "He deserves to be sent to a mental hospital for treatment. He is unfit to be in that constitutional position,” Sai Reddy said while speaking to reporters in Visakhapatnam.

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