A ‘mela’ (fair) like atmosphere prevailed at the Secretariat on Wednesday with hundreds of politicians, lobbyists and employee unions’ representatives thronging various departments to get their work done in the wake of talk that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy would resign in a day or two.
Requests galoreLeaders of almost all major political parties including MLAs and MLCs made a beeline for Ministers’ chambers which were packed with visitors, who pleaded with the Ministers to clear the files immediately.
Pending filesPoliticians flanked by their supporters and favour seekers frantically tried to locate the pending files lying in the Peshis of the Ministers. There were others, who queued up with petitions to get them signed by the Ministers.
Sources said the elected representatives were keen to get approvals for release of funds for the development and welfare programmes. In many cases, Ministers obliged the legislators and accorded sanctions rather reluctantly.
It is learnt that there was a huge clamour for clearance of files relating to disciplinary action against officials.
A senior official said most of the files pertained to Vigilance and Enforcement cases, termination of employees on the grounds of misappropriation and alleged irregularities.
Seek clearanceAnother category pitched hard for getting files dealing with promotions cleared.
The situation at Chief Minister’s chambers in the Assembly was no different.
A large number of MLAs met him to get sanctions from the CM’s Relief Fund and Special Grant Fund. A Minister told The Hindu that Mr. Reddy was liberal in sanctioning funds for the needy patients under the CMRF.
After the House was adjourned, the Chief Minister remained in his chambers in the Assembly for almost two hours just to receive the petitions.
