Ex-Telangana CS Somesh Kumar Assumes Office As Chief Advisor To CM KCR, Given Cabinet Minister Rank

Somesh Kumar, who is considered very close to Telangana Chief Minister KCR, has been given the rank of a Cabinet minister.

Somesh Kumar has been appointed for a period of three years ( Image Source :ABP Desam )

Former chief secretary of Telangana Somesh Kumar assumed office as Chief Advisor to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday. Somesh Kumar will sit on the sixth floor of the state secretariat.

On May 9, the Telangana government appointed retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Somesh Kumar as Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister.

According to the Government Order issued by Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari, Somesh Kumar has been given the rank of a Cabinet minister. He has been appointed for a period of three years.

Somesh Kumar's appointment came three months after he took voluntary retirement and weeks after he was shifted to Andhra Pradesh following a court order. He was removed as chief secretary of Telangana after the High Court quashed his allotment to that state.

On January 12, he reported to the Andhra Pradesh government as per orders from the Central government and called on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Somesh Kumar, who served as chief secretary of Telangana for three years, is considered very close to Chief Minister KCR.

The Telangana High Court on January 12 set aside the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana in 2016.

The same day, the Department for Personnel Training (DoPT) of the Centre relieved him from the state government of Telangana and directed him to join the Andhra Pradesh government within two days.

CAT's Hyderabad bench passed an order on March 29, 2016, allotting Somesh Kumar to Telangana.

Following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the Union government re-allotted IAS and IPS officers working in the undivided state to the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and the newly created Telangana state.

Somesh Kumar, an IAS from the 1989 batch in Bihar, was allotted to Andhra Pradesh by the DoPT. However, Somesh Kumar had moved the CAT and secured an order staying his allotment to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. Since then, he has continued in Telangana and became chief secretary in 2019.