AMARAVATI: Senior IAS officer Dr Poonam Malakondaiah has been appointed special chief secretary to the chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
She will head the administration in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). Dr Poonam was brought into CMO subsequent to the appointment of Dr KS Jawahar Reddy as chief secretary.
In fact, Dr Poonam, a 1988-batch IAS officer, is senior to Jawahar Reddy (1990-batch) and in contention for the chief secretary post.
However, she is believed to have dropped out of the race after learning that the chief minister is keen on going with Jawahar Reddy as the next chief secretary.
Surprisingly, CM has decided to take Dr Poonam Malakondaiah into CMO after handing the baton of the state administration to Jawahar Reddy.
In fact, YSRCP levelled serious allegations against Dr Poonam Malakondaiah when in opposition and sought a CBI probe into the Medtech zone project in Visakhapatnam.
However, Dr Poonam has been gifted with the prized post of agriculture special chief secretary soon after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy became the chief minister.
In fact, Dr Poonam is one of the few officers who was untouched in the last 40 months.
In another interesting development, 1994-batch IAS officer Praveen Prakash, who had recently returned from New Delhi, has finally got his choice post-principal secretary school education. Praveen Prakash had virtually run the CMO before he was shunted to New Delhi following a series of controversial decisions last year.
He, however, prevailed upon the chief minister and returned to the state within six months. Although Praveen is believed to have requested for posting in the school education department, he landed in transport and R&B soon after returning to the state a couple of months ago. Within no time, Praveen bagged the school education principal secretary post as the government shifted the incumbent special CS Budithi Rajasekhar.
The state government asked Rajasekhar to report to GAD for further posting. Markfed managing director and marketing commissioner PS Pradyumna was made transport department secretary.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Y Madhusudan Reddy had been given the full additional charge of agriculture and marketing departments as principal secretary. Reddy headed horticulture and marketing departments before moving as PCCF last month.
Interestingly, all those top officials including Dr Poonam Malakondaiah who handled the key positions during the previous TDP regime, were again given prime posts.
While G Sai Prasad, who was principal secretary to Naidu, was recently made chief commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA)-considered as second top post after chief secretary, Pradyumna, who was secretary to Naidu, bagged the prized post of transport department.
Similarly, Sasibhushan Kumar, who handled the irrigation portfolio during the Naidu regime, was again made boss of the irrigation department and Vijayanad was made special chief secretary in the energy department. YSRCP highlighted the alleged scandals in irrigation and energy departments when it was in opposition.
Meanwhile, the government appointed Rahul Pandey, an IFS officer as the new marketing commissioner while Mohammed Mydeen Diwan, another IFS officer was made special secretary to government (housing).
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