Telangana govt appoints four ex-IAS officers among six advisors

All of them have association with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) post retirement

The government of Telangana state appointed six retired government officials as its advisers on Monday, the first day in office. Of these, four are retired IAS officers.

All of them were associated with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) post retirement advising and assisting party president K Chandrasekhara Rao on issues centered around the separate statehood demand besides working on the party manifesto.

Among the retired IAS officers, KV Ramanachari was also in the polit bureau and was actively involved with the preparation of the manifesto. The other three are AK Goel, A R Ramalaxman, B V Paparao.

The remaining two advisers R Vidyasagar Rao, an expert in irrigation and river water issues, is a retired chief engineer while G R Reddy from the Indian Economic Services (IES) served as adviser to AP government at the fag-end of Kiran Kumar Reddy’s government.

Vidyasagar Rao, who worked in the Central Water Commission, had  played a key role in shaping up the ideological positions of the TRS around the river water sharing issues. He had also advised the party leadership on new projects that could help bring Godavari water to irrigate the uplands in Telangana.

The orders issued by chief secretary Rajiv Sharma, who himself was appointed on Monday, said the tenure of these advisers would be initially for a period of one year. The government was yet to issue the terms and conditions of the appointment, including the subject for which they were chosen.

Earlier in the day, the government appointed city police commissioner Anurag Sharma as new Director General of Police (DGP) of Telangana.