Telangana got its first woman chief secretary as Chief Minister K Chandrsekhar Rao chose to appoint A Santhi Kumari in place of incumbent Somesh Kumar who was directed to join the Andhra Pradesh government by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) after the high court quashed the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) allocating him to Telangana.
“Smt. A Santhi Kumari (RR 1989) is hereby appointed as chief secretary to Government of Telangana, vice Sri Somesh Kumar, IAS (RR1989),” read the gazette notification issued on Wednesday after the chief minister opted to go by seniority as well as a longer tenure.
Santhi Kumari will have quite a long tenure since she will retire in April 2025. I Rani Kumudini, a 1988 batch IAS in charge of the Labour Department will retire in July this year while another senior IAS Vasudha Mishra is on Central deputation. Unlike last time when Rao chose Somesh Kumar superseding 13 senior IAS officers, this time he abided by seniority instead of appointing junior officers like Arvind Kumar or K Ramakrishna Rao.
Santhi Kumari was serving as special chief secretary in the Environment and Forest Department before being appointed the sixth chief secretary of the state. She also handled the Health Department during the Covid pandemic.
The new chief secretary first met the chief minister at Pragathi Bhavan before taking charge in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Somesh Kumar, who met the chief minister yesterday after the court ordered him to join Andhra Pradesh immediately, might opt for voluntary retirement instead of going to the neighbouring state.
The incumbent Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy belongs to the 1990 batch and is junior to him. He might be appointed as another advisor to the Telangana government, following in the footsteps of his predecessors Rajiv Sharma and SK Joshi.