The Income Tax Department’s search at the houses and chamber of Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao and many other places concerning him has triggered a debate on his possible successor.
While the opposition parties have demanded that Mr. Rao be sacked, till late in the night, there was no indication from the State Government on its line of thinking. Nonetheless, several names have already started doing rounds on a possible successor to Mr. Rao should the Government choose to replace him or take action against him. Among them are Girija Vaidyanathan, an officer of the 1981 batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) who has about two-and-a-half years to go for retirement; R.N. Choubey, her batch mate and presently Civil Aviation Secretary at the Centre; and K. Shanmugam, Finance Secretary who belong to the batch (1985) of Mr. Rao. Ms. Vaidyanathan, who held the post of Health Secretary during 2011-2012, has been Commissioner of Land Administration.
Among the officers of the Chief Secretary grade are V.K. Jeyakodi (1984 batch); Rajeev Ranjan and C. Chandramouli, both belonging to the 1985 batch. While Mr. Jeyakodi is the Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation, Mr. Rajeev Ranjan and Mr. Chandramouli are the Secretaries in charge of Highways and Commercial Taxes Departments, respectively.
Though several officers to whom this correspondent spoke to were clueless as to what would happen in respect to Mr. Rao, they were of the view that one strong possibility is that he might be shifted or asked to go on leave. Some of them do not rule out the possibility of the Central government indicating its preference which can be expressed through Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao. A file on the appointment of the Chief Secretary has to be cleared by the Governor too, even though normally it is the Chief Minister who decides on the candidate.
Controversial choice
It may be recalled that the appointment of Mr. Rao six months ago, superseding several senior IAS officers, had triggered a controversy.
Some doubted his suitability for the post as they contended that Mr. Rao, despite being one of the Secretaries to the Chief Minister during 2011-2016, had not served as Finance Secretary or Home Secretary, two of the most important positions in the government that any IAS officer would aspire to hold. His immediate predecessor, K. Gnanadesikan, had held both the positions, before becoming Chief Secretary. However, what was cited in favour of Mr. Rao was that many of his predecessors had risen to the top without serving as Secretary of the two key departments.
In his career spanning over 30 years, Mr. Rao, who belongs to the 1985 batch, held different positions as Collector of undivided Chengalpattu (which comprised the present Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts) in 1994-96; Highways Secretary in 2005-06; and Social Welfare Secretary and Agriculture Secretary during 2009-11.
