Hyderabad: In a surprising development, IAS officer B. Janardhan Reddy was removed as Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) commissioner on Monday, just five months after he was appointed to the post.
The 1996 batch IAS officer is on long leave travelling abroad, said sources. There was no mention of a new post for this senior bureaucrat.
In the order issued by chief secretary Dr S.K. Joshi, Mr Reddy was told to report to the General Administration Department for further orders upon his return.
The fact that he was not assigned a new post and that he was told to quit his present post while he was away on a foreign trip had raised many eyebrows.
Arvind Kumar, principal secretary to MA&UD has been given additional charge as HMDA commissioner, though HMDA needs a fulltime officer as its head.
Mr Janardhan Reddy was previously commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
Janardhan Reddy was appointed HMDA commissioner in August 2018 as part of a reshuffle of bureaucrats ahead of the Telangana State Assembly elections.
The new development has stunned HMDA officials who were reportedly unaware that such a change was to be effected.
