Hyderabad: The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has requested Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to order a vigilance inquiry into all temporary promotions and postings of Mandal Revenue Officers (MROs) during the last couple of months.
In a letter addressed to the chief minister on Thursday, June 11, FGG president M Padmanabha Reddy raised serious concerns about the promotion of 12 MROs as Revenue Divisional Officers (RDOs) via government order no. 298, on May 27, without following rules.
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“While promoting MROs to the post of RDO, a selection committee needs to be constituted, and only after thorough verification of their records are promotions given. In the recent promotions, the set procedure has not been followed, and persons having serious Vigilance cases and ACB cases have been promoted,” Reddy alleged.
Padmanabha Reddy pointed out that some of the MROs facing serious disciplinary charges were promoted through a court order.
“But the court only said to consider, not direct. There are many such cases where promotions were given by misinterpreting the court’s order,” the letter read.
FGG flagged another serious irregularity in the postings. Seven of the 12 MROs have been promoted as District Revenue Officers (DROs).
“The hierarchy in the Revenue Department is MRO, RDO, then DRO. In the absence of a Collector, the DRO reviews departmental meetings. After serving 6 to 8 years, an RDO is promoted to the selection grade and posted as DRO,” Reddy remarked.
FGG also pointed out that in 2015, ACB registered a case against MRO S Sandhya, then working in Andole-Jogipet. The case was registered with the Principal Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases, Hyderabad.
Interestingly, it took four years for the state government to accord permission to prosecute the trapped MRO. Finally, a chargesheet was filed in 2019. The case has been pending since then.
Meanwhile, Sandhya filed an interlocutory petition in the Telangana High Court last year seeking temporary relief. Pending the disposal of the writ petition, the High Court ordered the respondents (Principal Secretary, Revenue) to consider the case of the petitioner for promotion to the post of Deputy Collector, without reference to the pendency of the 2019 chargesheet or the 2015 bribery case.
Reddy stated that it could understand if the MRO was promoted as RDO, but not Deputy Collector.
“ACB Telangana is toiling hard to control corruption by booking cases against corrupt officials. It is reported that during last eight months, the bureau registered close to 200 cases, but no follow-up action was taken. This abnormal delay in bringing the ACB cases to their logical conclusion is encouraging corruption in the administration,” Padmanabha Reddy cautioned the chief minister.
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