Hyderabad: Senior IAS officer Arvind Kumar was shunted out as secretary of the industries department and appointed as resident commissioner of Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday.
A letter written by Mr Kumar to the state government questioning the power purchase agreement with the Chhattis-garh government is said to be the reason for his sudden transfer.
Mr Kumar served as the secretary of both the energy and the industries departments.
As the secretary, energy, Mr Kumar had written a letter pointing out that the state government would lose nearly Rs 10,000 crore on account of the PPA since the power charges per unit were prescribed at a higher rate, which was not justifiable.
He suggested purchasing power through competitive bidding to save money. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had himself visited Chhattisgarh in 2014 to finalise the memorandum of understanding on the power purchase agreement.
The letter was written in November last, following which Mr Kumar was moved out as the secretary of the energy department in the last week of the month and Mr Ajay Mishra appointed in his place.
However, this letter got “leaked” recently, causing a huge embarrassment to government and especially for Mr Rao, since Opposition parties and Telangana Joint Action Committee are attacking the government over the PPA.
Mr Rao is learnt to have taken a serious view of the issue and ordered Mr Kumar’s transfer from the industries department. Following this, the orders were issued on Sunday, a holiday.
Sources said IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan had been given full additional charge as industries secretary.
The government is yet to post the order transferring Mr Kumar and appointing Mr Ranjan on its website.
