Senior bureaucrat Praveen Prakash, presently serving as the Principal Secretary (Political) of the General Administration Department, on Thursday replied to a show cause notice that he had received from former Chief Secretary L V Subrahmanyam.
The response was filed just days after a controversial move, where Praveen issued orders transferring Subrahmanyam and posted him as Director-General of the AP Human Resources Development Institute in Bapatla.
Subrahmanyam had alleged that Praveen Prakash had exhibited ‘grave misconduct’ and ‘misbehaviour’ and resorted to ‘willful insubordination’ and sought an explanation on ‘violation of business rules and conduct rules’.
Two charges were made -- the first being that that Praveen had sent a file regarding the YSR Lifetime Achievement Awards to the Chief Secretary for placing the proposal before the Council of Ministers, without prior approval.
"This proposal was discussed in detail during the preparatory meeting held at 4 pm on October 29, in which the then Chief Secretary was also present. In the meeting, it was decided to place this proposal before the Cabinet, subject to concurrence by the Finance Department," the response to the notice states.
Praven said that after the concurrence was received, "I felt it was natural and in sequential order to bring the proposal to the Cabinet. This was so because the proposed scheme features as well as the aspects of the Cabinet note, had already been discussed in the meeting referred above."
The senior bureaucrat was also accused of not bringing up the proposal of 'Gram Nyayalas', even after the approval by a competent authority.
"On October 29, the Law Secretary was clearly told by the competent authority that as the locations of Gram Nyayalas require further deliberations, the matter will be brought forward only in the subsequent Cabinet, once the discussions are complete. Despite this communication, the matter was brought up as a table agenda in the immediate Cabinet meeting," Praveen claimed.
He said that after discussing the issue with the Law Secretary, he decided to drop the matter from the agenda.
Praveen then went on to say that he was 'pained' to receive the notice.
"Such a notice harping on the perceived procedural digressions without taking into account the spirit of the issue makes me wonder if we as a cadre, are now questioning the common values we as a cadre have always upheld," he wrote, requesting Neerabh Kumar Prasad, who is the present Chief Secretary, to drop further proceedings against him.
Meanwhile, in a related development, Additional Secretary, K. Gurumurthy, from the General Administration Department (GAD), who filed a complaint with Subrahmanyam against Praveen, was shunted out.
He has now been posted as an Additional Secretary with the Backward Classes Welfare Department.
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