The Andhra Pradesh government has appointed a new Chief Secretary to replace present CS Satya Prakash Tucker, who will retire on Tuesday.
However, IAS officer Ajeya Kallam, who will replace Tucker, will only serve for a month.
This is due to the fact that Kallam, himself a senior officer, will be retiring on March 31.
Therefore, the Andhra government also issued an order, which would appoint Dinesh Kumar to succeed Kallam from April 1.
The Hindu reported that Kallam, from the 1983 batch, was an "upright officer" and "widely respected."
Quoting sources, the Times of India reported that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu consulted several ministers and close aides, followed by a one-on-one talk with Kallam, before he made the decision. He also spoke to Dinesh later.
According to reports, Andhra also approached the Centre, requesting a six-month extension of Kallam's tenure.
However, the Centre turned it down, citing the case of K Pradeep Chandra in Telangana, who also served as CS for only one month, after being rejected for an extension.
The New Indian Express reported that some officials said that the state had tried its best to secure an extension for Kallam from the Centre, while others argued that the state should not have announced his successor’s name, a month in advance.