Chandrashekar Appointed New CIC of Telangana

Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana on Monday appointed Dr G. Chandrashekar Reddy, IFS, as the State Chief Information Commissioner under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The three-year tenure will start from the date he assumes office or until he attains the age of 65, whichever is earlier, as per Section 16 of the RTI Act (amended 2019), according to an order issued by Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao.

Dr Reddy, a 1991-batch Indian Forest Service officer, currently serves as principal secretary to the Chief Minister, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (HoFF), and vice-chairman and managing director of the Telangana Forest Development Corporation Ltd. A native of Boregaon village in Adilabad district, he holds a BSc in forestry from Osmania University and an MSc in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He also earned master’s degrees in Management and Public Policy from IIM Bangalore and Syracuse University, and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Kakatiya University.

With 34 years’ experience in natural resource management, Dr Reddy has led initiatives in forest and wildlife management; watershed-based livelihoods; drought and flood mitigation; urban forestry; high-density planting models; eco-friendly coal mining; biodiesel plantations; and biodiversity conservation. He has directed DFID, JICA, and World Bank – aided water and livelihoods projects, and served as course coordinator for the foundation courses of IFS and civil services trainees at Dr MCR HRD Institute under the LBS National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. As the founding dean of Telangana’s Forest College & Research Institute, he headed the institution for five years.

Recently honoured with a Special Lifetime Achievement Award by Raj Bhavan, Telangana, for his environmental conservation efforts, Dr Reddy is currently focused on eco-tourism and identifying eucalyptus alternatives for commercial plantations in the state.