Hyderabad: It was a New Year’s Day shocker for chief secretary K. Pradeep Chandra, when the Centre turned down the Telangana state government’s request to extend his tenure by three months.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday appointed special chief secretary in the panchayat raj department Shekhar Prasad Singh, a 1983 batch IAS officer, as the new chief secretary with immediate effect. Mr Singh assumed office on the same day and will serve for 13 months as he will retire on January 31, 2018. Mr Singh has also assumed full additional charge as chief commissioner of land administration.
Mr Chandra was the first dalit chief secretary of TS. His tenure lasted just one month, having been appointed on November 30, 2016, after Mr Rajiv Sharma retired. Mr Sharma’s tenure had been extended by the Centre by six months in two spells of three months each, following the request made by the CM. The CM was hoping for a similar response to his request to the Centre to extend Mr Chandra’s tenure by three months. He also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard when he met him in New Delhi and also when Mr Modi visited Hyderabad last month to attend a conference at the National Police Academy.
