Livid Jagan Reddy asks babus to work from secretariat

Six months since his instructions went unheeded, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy once again 'seriously directed' special chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of various departments to 'necessarily' work from the state secretariat.

On August 13 last year, the Chief Minister, through the then chief secretary, issued similar instructions but to no avail.

On Wednesday, Jagan once again got his message conveyed through chief secretary Sameer Sharma to all bureaucrats to strictly comply with his orders.

“This is a serious direction from the chief minister that all special chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries should necessarily come to the secretariat and work from here. The biometric attendance will be closely monitored,” the chief secretary told the bureaucrats.

Less than 10 IAS and IPS officers heading various departments in the Secretariat are actually coming to work punctually while majority of the others have been operating “remotely” ever since the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.

The chief secretary has been coming to the Secretariat daily even after attending review meetings at the chief minister's camp office, some 15-km away.

Some top bureaucrats stopped coming to the Secretariat citing “dysfunctional air-conditioning system” in their chambers. Some others were “seriously bothered” by the traffic restrictions on the lone (river bund) road leading to the Secretariat and marking their presence only occasionally.

The chief minister was said to have recently remarked that the “bureaucrats seem to be becoming lazy”, triggering an internal debate among the IAS babus.

It was taken to the CM's notice that only a handful of bureaucrats were visiting the secretariat regularly and the others were operating from the heads of departments offices either in Vijayawada, Tadepalli or Mangalagiri.

Some officers were regularly seen at the Chief Minister's Camp Office in Tadepalli only.

The Chief Minister, according to top official sources, has taken a serious view of the matter and asked the Chief Secretary to direct his subordinate officers to attend work from the Secretariat regularly.