Senior IAS officer Yerra Srilakshmi, who managed to get transferred to Andhra Pradesh cadre after a prolonged effort and by moving the Central Administrative Tribunal, got a plum post in the government of YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
She has been posted as Secretary to Government in the Municipal Administration and Urban Development in place of J Syamala Rao. Apparently, she will be entrusted with the task of formation of three capitals for Andhra and handling the issues in Amaravati.
A 1998-batch IAS officer, Srilakshmi has been waiting for a posting for the last two weeks, though she got transferred to AP from Telangana cadre.
Apparently, the department of personnel and training did not give clearance to her cadre change so easily, though CAT gave the order in her favour. After a lot of lobbying, she managed to get the final order from DoPT.
There was a talk that Srilakshmi might be taken into the chief minister’s office, but Jagan wants to use her services in the MAUD before taking any decision on shifting her to the CMO.
Ever since Jagan Mohan Reddy became the chief minister in May 2019, Srilakshmi, who had been allotted Telangana cadre, had been making desperate attempts to join his government on deputation.
Even Jagan made hectic lobbying with the Centre to bring her to Andhra Pradesh on deputation as the Telangana government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao had agreed to depute her. She, too, made a representation to the Centre.
But the Union ministry of personnel and training rejected her request and also the representation from the Jagan government stating that IAS officers of Secretary rank cannot be deputed from one state to another state.
As a result, Srilakshmi moved the CAT stating that she was wrongly allocated Telangana cadre based on her postal address which belonged to her father who had worked in Hyderabad.
She said she originally hailed from Visakhapatnam and hence, she be allocated Andhra cadre. The CAT considered her request favourably and gave her a favourable order.
Srilakshmi had served imprisonment in connection with Obulapuram mining case of Karnataka mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy. Later, she also faced troubles in the CBI cases against Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Though she was later released on bail and returned to service, the Telangana state was formed and she had been allotted to the Telangana cadre.
She did not make any attempt to go to Andhra then, because of the Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu and she might have thought she might have to face troubles from the Naidu government because of her involvement in the cases linked to Jagan.
Now that Srilakshmi is in Jagan government, she might get a plum posting because of the sacrifices she had made for the family.