Jaganmohan Reddy transfers chief secy V Subramanyam

VIJAYAWADA: In a swift and dramatic development, chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy transferred chief secretary L V Subramanyam on Monday. He was relieved of his duty with immediate effect, giving the charge to the chief commissioner of land acquisition, Neerabh Kumar Prasad.
The transfer comes in the backdrop of Subramanyam issuing a show cause notice to Praveen Prakash, principal secretary (political) to the chief minister on November 3.

Subramanyam was reportedly annoyed with the attitude of Praveen Prakash in the chief minister’s office, who he thought was bypassing the chief secretary. Praveen Prakash had issued a GO on November 2 giving posting orders to senior IAS officers Satish Chandra, J S V Prasad and K Kanna Babu, besides two IPS officers, N V Surendra Babu and T A Tripati. It is said that the chief secretary had no knowledge of the transfers and posting of these officers, which irked Subrahmanyam.
Sources say that Subramanyam was also upset over not tabling the village law secretaries file at the October 30 cabinet meeting.
The proposal was cleared by the chief secretary and was sent to Praveen Prakash in the first week of October. The chief secretary expected that the file would be tabled in the cabinet meeting on October 16 and subsequently on October 30. As it was not included in the agenda for the cabinet meeting, the chief secretary saw it as an act of insubordination and had served the show cause notice.
Though Subrahmanyam was not the original choice of Jaganmohan Reddy, as the former was appointed by the Election Commission at the time of 2019 elections, he continued in the post for the past five months, having a good working relationship with the chief minister. He accompanied the chief minister twice to Delhi to speak to the prime minister and other Union ministers.
However, the sources say that the differences between the chief minister and the chief secretary cropped up following Subrahmanyam’s visit to Tirupati where he issued strict orders to the temples to withdraw non-Hindu officers from the endowments department. Some officers in Velagapudi secretariat say that the chief minister did not like the initiative that the chief secretary took, without consulting him.