Hyderabad: Senior IAS officer, Telangana, and Siddipet district collector, P Venkatrama Reddy, resigned from his service on Monday and joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party.
Chief secretary Somesh Kumar, issued a government order stating that Reddy had sought voluntary retirement from his service and it was accepted. He has been relieved from service with immediate effect, said the statement.
Reddy has reportedly retired to join the TRS and is likely to get the party nomination for the state legislative council. “I have resigned from my service and it was accepted on Monday. I had been in the service for the last 26 years and worked in various governments in various capacities. It is for the party on how to utilise my services,” he said.
According to sources from the chief minister’s office, Reddy received a call from Pragathi Bhavan asking him to meet chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the evening. “In all probability, he will be nominated as the TRS candidate for MLC elections,” sources said.
It is unclear whether he would be given the MLC seat under MLA’s quota, nominations for which on Tuesday; or under the local bodies’ quota, elections for which are scheduled to be held on December 10.
Venkatrama Reddy had recently hit the headlines, for allegedly threatening seed dealers against selling paddy seeds to farmers during the Rabi season.
Threatening seed dealers, Reddy had said that he would not care for high court or Supreme Court orders, and as long as he was in the collector’s chair, and would not allow the sale of even a single kilogram (kg) of paddy seeds. He threatened to jail those who defied his orders. He was pulled up by the High Court for his statement, forcing him to retract it.