Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy is reported to have started the exercise of filling up the nominated posts which have been lying vacant for the last four years. In the recently-held State Coordination Committee meeting, it was decided to request the Chief Minister to fill the vacancies with eligible Congress leaders by August 15. On assurances given in the meeting, the CM reportedly started obtaining details of various nominated posts and lists of aspirants who submitted requests to him during the last year-and-a-half.
After the Congress came to power in May 2004, the then CM Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy had appointed select Congressmen as chairman of various public sector undertakings and other committees in 2005. Their terms expired in 2008. YSR could not reappoint anyone before his death and hence the posts remained vacant. During K. Rosaiah’s regime, there were appoi-ntments for few a committees and corporations and now their term have also expired. There has not been a single appointment during Kiran Kumar Reddy’s rule so far.
The main problem in filling up the nominated posts is that the aspirants far exceed the number of posts. Almost every leader, other than legislators, desires appointment only as chairman and is not interested in taking up posts of director in public sector undertakings. But in the changed circumstances in the state, and the importance of MLAs becoming more and more crucial, the legislators have started coveting posts of chairman in corporations which is equivalent to the status of a Cabinet minister.
According to sources, the CM has started scanning the bio-data of applicants and filtering names in order to prepare the final list. Sources say it will take at least ten days to finalise the list before submitting it to the party high command for approval. The CM would like the process of appointments to be completed by August so that the party can conc-entrate on the preparation for the local body polls. Sources say the CM wants to give priority to those who sacrificed their seats or lost the 2009 elections and subsequent bypolls.