C V Anand's posting as commissioner of civil supplies department riles IAS officer
Hyderabad: The appointment of IPS officer C.V. Anand as commissioner of civil supplies department has upset IAS officers. The IAS Officers’ Association has decided to lodge a strong objection with the government over the transfer of IAS officer Rajat Kumar, who was discharging duties as the civil supplies commissioner for over a year, to accommodate Mr Anand. The government issued transfer orders on Tuesday.
Normally, the post of commissioner in non-police departments are held by IAS officers but the TS government started a new trend appointing an IPS officer to head the civil supplies department, triggering off a fresh row between IAS and IPS officers. The Association has sought appointment of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to take up the issue. The issue figured during a meeting convened by Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma with senior IAS officers at the Secretariat on Wednesday to discuss the creation of new districts.
The officers brought to the notice of the CS about the strong resentment being expressed by both junior and senior IAS officers on IPS officers being given priority in administrative jobs. They pointed out that already, IPS officers were being appointed to top jobs in RTC, social welfare residential schools etc., and the latest appointment in civil supplies and proposed appointment of one more IPS officer as transport commissioner was objectionable.
They said that the IPS officers have only regulatory experience and not administrative experience. The other major objection pointed out was that with Mr Anand’s appointment, IAS officers would be reporting to an IPS officer. “Collectors and joint collectors in districts who are IAS officers, deal with civil supplies issues and they need to report to Mr Anand, which we are opposing,” said a senior IAS official.
The CM has decided to appoint Mr Anand as he wants a strict police officer to head the department, which is plagued by diversion of huge quantity of PDS food grains to the black market, bogus ration cards etc. The CM’s pet schemes such as “sanna biyyam” (supplying fine quality rice to schools, hostels), 6-kg rice per head at Re 1 per kg without any upper ceiling for white ration card holders are dealt with by the civil supplies department and large-scale diversion of these stocks are coming to light every day and the government wants to check this menace by appointing an IPS officer.
