IAS officer Santhi Kumari becomes first woman Chief Secretary of Telangana

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday appointed senior IAS officer Santhi Kumari as the state’s chief secretary in place of Somesh Kumar.

The Telangana high court on Tuesday ordered the repatriation of Kumar to his home cadre Andhra Pradesh.

Santhi, who has tenure until April 2025, became the first woman to hold the office of Telangana chief secretary, the highest bureaucratic position in a state.

Santhi, a 1989 batch IAS officer, the same as Kumarh, was serving as special chief secretary of the state forest department.

Though the names of Ramakrishna Rao and Arvind Kumar, also special chief secretaries heading the finance and municipal administration departments, respectively, were reportedly under consideration, KCR preferred Santhi.

Meanwhile, following the court judgement, Somesh Kumar met with KCR on Tuesday.

As per the central department of personnel and training (DoPT) directive, based on the high court order, Somesh has time until Thursday to report to the Andhra Pradesh government.

The DoPT passed orders relieving Kumar from the Telangana service with immediate effect. He had a few days ago completed three years as the CS and has tenure till 2023 end.

The Telangana BJP has alleged that Kumar was made the CS by the chief minister for his political gains and vested interests, even as his cadre allocation case was pending before the court.

“Even after being allotted to the AP cadre, Kumar managed to continue in Telangana based on a Central Administrative Tribunal order and was later promoted as the state chief secretary.”

“Kumar has throughout worked as a TRS agent. He has the dubious distinction of having attended a TRS party office inauguration programme along with the chief minister. His exit from Telangana is very welcome,” said Marri Shashidhar Reddy, one of the senior most Congress leaders in Telangana who had recently joined the BJP.