A topic of hot debate in bureaucratic circles these days is the position of MPs and MLAs as ex-officio members of municipalities and municipal corporations that went to polls last month to elect their governing councils.
The MPs and MLAs are supposed to participate in indirect election of chairmen and deputy chairmen of municipalities and Mayors and Deputy Mayors of municipal corporations soon after constitution of councils. By coincidence, however, the Supreme Court has ordered that the results of polls to municipal bodies should not be declared until May 7 when the two phase general elections in the State is over.
The order of the apex court has thrown the State Election Commission into confusion as it is unable to decide whether the sitting MPs and MLAs can participate in indirect election or wait till the new Lok Sabha and Assembly are constituted which is not likely before May end. By rule, however, they are members till the legislatures are dissolved.
As IAS, IPS and IFS officers are slogging it out with tasks connected to bifurcation of the State, their counterparts in IRS are a relieved lot because the restructuring of income tax, customs, central excise and service tax is not dependent on geographical boundaries but business potential.
Incidentally, the Income Tax department is going to get a Chief Commissioner at Vijayawada but it has nothing to do with bifurcation.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan has got an assurance from 21 committees on the job of bifurcation that they will submit reports by the month-end.
IAS officers of the State administration have given up discussing the fate of Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty after the High Court struck down petitions challenging his extension of service.
The court’s observation that Mr. Mohanty’s extension was given under unusual circumstances by the Centre at the discretion of the Governor’s office put the controversy at rest.
The extension was given at a time when former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy tendered his resignation and refused to involve himself with the administration as the caretaker Chief Minister.
Colleagues of Mr. Mohanty and Chief Commissioner of Land Administration I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, who was supposed to succeed the former, sympathised with both of them.
There was plenty of sympathy for Mr. Mohanty because he supervised the gigantic bifurcation, and solidarity for Mr. Rao as he lost an opportunity.
Will the work of the committee on reorganisation of departments be an exercise in futility as the process of bifurcation gathers momentum?
That’s what some of the senior IAS officers feel. A senior bureaucrat pointed out that there is every need to merge some of the departments like Agriculture and Horticulture into one entity in a smaller State.
Similarly, Agro industries, seed certifying agency and seeds corporation could have a single managing director if the reorganisation is done in a rationale way.
But the employees unions will have none of it. They fear it will affect their “promotional avenues.”
N. Rahul, M.L. Melly Maithreyi & Y. Mallikarjun
(Mail to: hyderabaddesk@thehindu.co.in)
