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Ret. AP IAS officers come to aid of serving colleagues against CBN

By IndianMandarins- 17 Apr 2019
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Retired IAS officers of united AP have objected to the reported scurrilous statement and “intemperate remarks” made by Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. Chandrababu Naidu against the Chief Secretary and the Chief Electoral Officer of the State.

 

In a petition, signed by as many as 34 retired IAS officers of united Andhra Pradesh, to Governor ESL Narasimhan, veteran officers said that in matters relating to the conduct of elections, such behavior and utterances as those of CBN sought to damage the credibility of the highest officials in the bureaucracy and in the process also harmed the image of the head of the government. Such behavior would also challenge the legitimate authority of the Election Commission of India.

 

The petition was submitted to the Governor at Raj Bhavan by a delegation of 12 retired officials, led by former chairman of Visakhapatnam Port Trust T. Gopala Rao, on Tuesday. The senior-most among the signatories is C. S. Rangachari IAS of 1958 batch.

 

The officers urged the Governor as the Head of the State to take necessary action so that such attempts to “publicly belittle and humiliate” senior officials of the State would not recur.

 

The delegation, later speaking to media, said that it was Chief Election Commissioner who appointed the senior-most IAS officers from a panel of three names given by the AP government when the Commission decided to change existing Chief Secretary Anil Punetha. L.V. Subramanyam was appointed by the Election Commission for the free and impartial conduct of elections in the State.

 

But Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu referred to Subramanyam as the co-accused along with a political leader. In the combined State, a number of officers were victimized and false cases foisted on them for political reasons. Further, the High Court had quashed the FIR filed against Subramanyam and he was free of any charges. Yet it was highly inappropriate for the Chief Minister to refer to the Chief Secretary as a co-accused in a case.

 

CBN's “intimidating behavior” with Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh Gopalkrishna Dwivedi was unbecoming of a public figure and it amounted to undermining the dignity of the IAS officers and to muzzle the democracy, Gopal Rao said.

 

Asked if they would also take up the alleged humiliation of IAS officers in Telangana, Gopal Rao said they have their own assessment about the situation in Telangana but the purpose of meeting the Governor was to draw his attention to undermining the dignity of Chief Secretary appointed by the Election Commission.

 

Former chief secretary of AP IYR. Krishna Rao said that serving officers would have limitations in reacting. “So as retired officers, we wanted to highlight this issue so that people would come to know of the facts.”

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