Hyderabad: The much talked about bureaucratic reshuffle planned by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has failed to come through barring the transfer of seven IAS officers by the Government on Monday.

The plethora of ongoing programmes such as Indiramma and Praja Patham and deputation of as many as 80 IAS officers (more are expected to be deputed) on election duties in five States are cited as one of the reasons for holding back the planned reshuffle.

But, a far more important cause for the delay is the dilemma of the Chief Minister, who is being assisted in the exercise by his Political Advisor, K. V. P. Ramachandra Rao, in completing the task to his satisfaction. Both of them spent considerable time last week discussing various options.

Focus on coordination

Apart from ensuring that honest and committed officials are in place in focal positions, the Chief Minister is keen on ensuring better coordination between Collectors and his own office which is found lacking. On quite a few occasions, Dr. Reddy learnt to his dismay that timely information about a brewing crisis did not reach the CMO and local officials acted on their own. As a result, the problem was exacerbated.

A case in point is the police firing over the Gangavaram port controversy. The CMO could respond belatedly in the absence of proper inputs from the Vizag district administration. Similar was the controversial order issued by former Vizag Collector Praveen Prakash, seeking to gag two Telugu dailies. The Government is also facing flak now for being flat footed on the issue of chikun gunya by admitting the existence of an epidemic nearly two months after it broke out.

Although the Chief Minister wants irrigation projects taken up on a fast track and has even fixed deadlines, the pace of work is not up to his expectations. He now feels the need for a better mechanism to speed up works and monitor their progress.

But, lobbying by Ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats themselves is hampering the reshuffle. On the other hand, there is no dearth of cases where Ministers are at loggerheads with Secretaries of their respective departments and MLAs with Collectors.

Senior bureaucrats recall how the Chief Minister ordered en masse transfers of 73 IAS officers last year, but had to oblige several requests and rescind his own orders. The number of IAS transfers effected in the first year of his rule was around 150. All this goes to show how complicated the issue of transfers has become.

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