Outgoing Telangana CS Ramakrishna Rao joins the ranks of bureaucrats joining as advisers

Telangana Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy | Photo credit: BY ARRANGEMENT

The departure of Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao on June 30 marks a significant shift in Telangana’s administrative landscape. After his retirement from service, the current top bureaucrat will become an adviser to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, taking the total number of active advisers to the Congress government to 11.

This development underscores a deeply entrenched model of governance: a systematic reliance on post-retirement appointments to anchor state policy. Mr Rao is the fourth chief secretary of Telangana since 2014 to move directly from a top civil service position to a senior advisory role. He follows in the footsteps of Rajiv Sharma and Somesh Kumar, who both served as senior advisers under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime.

Another Chief Secretary SK Joshi was appointed Advisor to the Government on Irrigation after his retirement in 2019. Another former Chief Secretary was A. Shanti Kumari, who became the Vice-Chairman Dr. Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute.

By appointing Mr. Rao, a veteran fiscal planner who has shaped more than a dozen state budgets, the Congress administration is following a tradition left by the BRS where former civil servants continue to hold the full rank of government ministers. Across successive governments (earlier BRS and current Congress), 12 IAS officers have been retained as state advisers immediately after their retirement. There are other retired bureaucrats and police officers who have held the coveted posts of heads of state run by statutory commissions, regulatory bodies and corporations.

Former DGP M. Mahender Reddy served as Chairman of Telangana State Public Service Commission. Earlier, B. Janardhan Reddy, a former IAS officer, was the chairman and the current incumbent is again a former bureaucrat, Burra Venkatesham.

The reliance on bureaucratic veterans and unelected politicians reflects the strategy of the current Congress administration to run a hybrid model of governance that uses basic technical expertise and leverages the experience of political leaders.

The political level includes party allegiances such as Mohammed Ali Shabbir (SC, ST, OBC, Minorities Welfare), V. Hanumantha Rao (BC Welfare and Development)K. Keshava Rao (Public Affairs), P. Sudarshan Reddy (Implementation of Flagship Welfare and Development Programmes), Parige Srinivas Reddy (Agriculture), AP Jithender Reddy (Sports Affairs) and Harkara Venugopal Rao (Protocol and Public Relations).

Political leaders who are advisors

To balance this political weight, the government sought to tap the vast experience of senior officials such as former Special Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das (Irrigation and Water Resources), former Hyderabad Metro Rail General Manager NVS Reddy (City Transport) and former DGP B. Shivadhar Reddy (State Security). The addition of K. Ramakrishna Rao brings top money management skills to the state government at a time when its finances are under tremendous pressure.

The meetings lamented

However, the succession of advisers to successive governments does not go well for civil societies, as well as for politicians and political parties. The Forum for Good Governance (FGG), a civil society watchdog, has criticized the appointment of advisers, which it complains are an unconstitutional drain of public money. Each advisor’s office costs taxpayers roughly ₹2.5 million per month to run, due to standard housing, fuel allowances and private secretarial escort.

The next layer in the hierarchy

Aside from the monetary aspects, officials worry that such an appointment could create another level of hierarchy in the administration, where the adviser has the power to interfere with their duties. Such a situation existed in the previous BRS government where it had to first inform and convince the advisers before the matter was escalated to the Chief Minister’s office.

Petition

The question of advisers also came to court. BRS leader Errola Srinivas filed a public interest litigation (PIL) arguing that granting ministerial status to unelected individuals violates Article 164(1A) of the Constitution, which limits the size of a state’s Council of Ministers. The case is still being heard by the High Court.

Ironically, the current Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had filed a similar petition in 2017 as a member of the opposition against the appointment of advisers by the BRS government. In his petition, Mr Reddy argued that giving cabinet ranks to unelected political representatives created an illegal, indirectly parallel cabinet that burdened the exchequer with taxpayer-funded perks.

Published – 26 Jun 2026 18:11 IST