Hyderabad:

1976 batch IAS officer Minnie Mathew was on Saturday named as the chief secretary to succeed Pankaj Dwivedi upon the latter’s superannuation. Mathew is currently chief commissioner of land administration, a post by convention considered as the CS-in-waiting, and will be head of the AP bureaucracy till her superannuation in February 2013.

Until Friday, there was much speculation that Dwivedi may be given a three-month extension and that Mathew could become the chief secretary even after that. However, for a change, the state government headed by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy struck to the seniority principle and appointed Mathew.

During Dwivedi’s tenure of over a year-and-half as the chief secretary, the AP bureaucracy has seen its worse phase in the state’s history. While two officers were jailed on various charges including criminal conspiracy, two others were booked in various cases being probed by the CBI. And at least a dozen other IAS officers were questioned with regard to various land allotments and other decisions of the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government.

And after the Supreme Court issued notices to 8 IAS officers in the Jagan disproportionate assets case along with six ministers of the YSR cabinet, the state bureaucracy saw for the first time a major confrontation between the political leaders and the officers on the issue of who should be held accountable for the decisions of the state government.

Mathew, who will have about 8 months of tenure as the chief secretary, will inherit all the problems being faced by the bureaucracy from Dwivedi. While two of the officers, B P Acharya and Y Srilakshmi, are still in Chanchalguda Jail, the process of questioning several other officers by the CBI in the various cases being probed by the investigative agency will continue.

And there is the spectre of some more IAS officers being booked by the CBI. Governance and ensuring that the revenue-earning departments continue to perform well would be other important tasks ahead of Mathew. “These are testing times for the bureaucrats, especially in Andhra Pradesh, and babudom would require their head to lead from the front. The coming months will unveil whether Mathew is upto the task,” said an officer.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad / by Ganesh S. Lakshman, TNN / June 30th, 2012