India is the Only Option for Some Senior IAS Officers

By VV Balakrishna - HYDERABAD

Published: 11th May 2014 08:22 AM

Last Updated: 11th May 2014 10:18 AM

Why is the Centre offering options to All India Service (AIS) officers of the AP cadre to choose either Telangana or the residuary state? Such an opportunity was never given earlier during division of States. The question is being posed by some senior IAS officers themselves.
Some of them have decided to register their protest by not even filling the proforma issued by Chief Secretary PK Mohanty seeking their preferences. “I will not give my preference. I will not even fill the form,” a senior IAS officer told Express. Another official pointed out, “An AIS officer should be prepared to work anywhere in the country. He should work beyond caste, creed or regional feelings.” Another senior officer reasoned, “I am almost 1,600 km away from home. It does not matter if I work in AP or Telangana.” However, not all officers share his view. Several demanded option to either work in Telangana or AP and also represented the same to the Chief Secretary, who in turn requested the Centre to allow preferences. They have their own reasons, mostly personal, and in a few cases, outright bizarre.
“Hyderabad weather is very good when compared to Seemandhra. I do not like sultry weather,” one officer confessed. There is one more reason as one officer admitted. “Some senior officers have houses and other properties in Hyderabad. They are reluctant to go to AP fearing their properties might be encroached,” he said. This is not to say all are reluctant to go to AP. Some believe AP offers scope for better work.
Then, there are those who think along political lines. Some are convinced that YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will come to power and are keen on working with him. Some others see hope in TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and want to work with him.
Earlier, the proposal was to distribute IAS officers of AP origin basing on their nativity. But there is a catch. “We filled in the birth place at the time of applying for the UPSC examination. Those files are not available with the UPSC now. We have to give the information afresh. There is no way of ascertaing if the informaiton furnished is correct,” a senior officer said.
Another problem with this proposal is the issue of Telugu-speaking officers born in other States. Keeping all these factors in mind, one officer suggested, “It is better for the Centre to draw lots batch-wise.”