Jawahar Reddy appointed Chief Secretary of AP

Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1990 batch, K S Jawahar Reddy, was on Tuesday appointed as the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh.

He will replace 1985-batch officer Sameer Sharma, who will retire on November 30 at the end of his one-year extended service, according to an order issued by Principal Secretary, General Administration Department (Political).

Jawahar Reddy is currently serving as Special Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary issued a separate order appointing Sameer Sharma as the Chief Executive to Chief Minister (CE2CM), a post that has been newly created.

As 'CE2CM', he will oversee implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals and be responsible "to work towards measures to increase the Gross State Domestic Product" of AP, the order said.

For a long time now, Sameer Sharma had been aspiring to become the "Chief of Staff to CM", something similar to Chief of Staff to the US President.

"The Chief Minister obliged him in the form of a post-retirement sop," top bureaucratic sources pointed out.

The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government bypassed at least six IAS officers senior to him in appointing Jawahar Reddy as the Chief Secretary.

Jawahar Reddy will be in service till June 30, 2024.

Jawahar Reddy earlier worked as Secretary to the Chief Minister in the then united AP under N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Some of his earlier stints included Collector and District Magistrate of Srikakulam and East Godavari districts, Principal Secretary Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Principal Secretary Health and Executive Officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.

In February this year, he was appointed as the Special Chief Secretary to Chief Minister.

All three all-India services – IAS, IPS and IFS – will be headed by officers belonging to one particular community, which is unprecedented, bureaucrats claimed.

The IPS is headed by K V Rajendranath Reddy and the IFS by Y Madhusudhan Reddy.

Poonam Malakondaiah, two years senior to Jawahar Reddy, has been appointed as the Special Chief Secretary to CM.

In fact, Poonam was a strong contender for the Chief Secretary post and even made her case to the Chief Minister saying she should not be made to work under a junior officer.

As a compromise, she was brought into the CMO, top bureaucratic sources said.

"It is a well-known fact that the Special CS to CM wields the real power than the state Chief Secretary. So she will be the power centre though her junior will be heading the state bureaucracy," the sources averred.

Senior IAS officer of the 1994 batch Praveen Prakash has been appointed as Principal Secretary, School Education, in a reshuffle of bureaucrats today.

Praveen previously worked as Principal Secretary to the CM and is now heading the Transport, Roads and Buildings Department.

With the state government focusing highly on school education through a lot of reforms, Praveen has been shifted to the key department to carry forward the Chief Minister's mission.

P S Pradyumna (2004) will be the new Secretary of the Transport, Roads and Buildings Department in the place of Praveen, according to an order issued by outgoing Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma.

Special Chief Secretary B Rajsekhar (1992), who has been transferred out of the School Education Department, has been asked to report to the General Administration Department for a new posting upon his return from a 45-day leave.

Principal Chief Convservator of Forests Y Madhusudhan Reddy, IFS, has been given full additional charge of the posts of Special Chief Secretary Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries following the posting of incumbent Poonam Malakondaiah as Special Chief Secretary to CM.

Another IFS officer Rahul Pandey has been posted as Commissioner of Agricultural Marketing, with full additional charge of the post of Managing Director AP Markfed.

B Mohamed Diwan Mydeen, also of the IFS, has been posted as Special Secretary (Housing).

Meanwhile, the government issued another order re-employing 1999-batch IAS officer G Srkr Vijay Kumar, upon his retirement on November 30. He will be re-employed as Chief Executive Officer of AP State Development Planning Society and ex-officio Secretary (Planning) for one year, according to an order by the Chief Secretary.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)