Janardhan Reddy axed from HMDA commissioner's post

A day before Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) commissioner B Janardhan Reddy was to return from his US visit and report back to work, the state government shunted him out on Monday.

While principal secretary of municipal administration department Arvind Kumar will continue as in-charge of the HMDA till further orders, Reddy has been asked to report to General Administration Department (GAD) and await his new assignment. A government order (GO No 229) was issued in this regard on Monday.

Janardhan Reddy is abroad on earned leave since January 12 and had gone to Duke University in North Carolina to receive a certificate on administrative reforms. In his absence, Arvind Kumar has been serving as HMDA in-charge commissioner and had held a review meeting last week on developing logistics parks and other projects.

The sudden move has raised many eyebrows as Reddy was supposed to report for duty on



Tuesday (January 29). Sources said that the state government is reportedly unhappy with him as he had rejected some files pertaining to land conversions in violation of rules. The TRS party is also upset with HMDA as it had collected Rs 57 lakh from the party for the losses the agency suffered due to closure of Outer Ring Road (ORR) on September 2, 2018, to enable the ruling party to hold its public meeting ‘Pragati Nivedana Sabha’ at Kongara Kalan. The payment notice was served to TRS by the authority immediately after the meeting, which apparently irked the ruling party. Meanwhile, the CPI (M) and other opposition parties alleged that the HMDA had collected lesser than what it was supposed to.

Janardhan Reddy is on earned leave and had gone to North Carolina to receive a certificate on administrative reforms. The TRS govt is said to be unhappy over Reddy not clearing files pertaining to land conversions