Telangana seeks H-Block from Andhra Pradesh to set up chief electoral officer’s office

HYDERABAD: Telangana state has got a new chief electoral officer (CEO) but not an office premises for him. Though the CEO is yet to take charge, officials concerned are not able to find office space to the officer.

The state is badly in need of office space at the Secretariat, especially in the H-Block. After the Election Commission of India separated the chief electoral officers (CEOs) for both Telugu states, TS has been finding it difficult to provide office space to its new CEO.

Till now, the common CEO, drawn from AP IAS cadre, had been serving both the states. The H-Block housed the erstwhile CEO’s office but the block was allotted to AP during division of the Secretariat  between the two states after bifurcation of the state. After the appointment of a separate CEO for Telangana, the officer can no longer function from H-Block, much less the existing CEO’s office, as the H-Block was allotted to AP.

Not only for the new CEO, the government is finding it difficult to provide space for the newly-formed State Finance Commission. The TS government could not find any additional space in A, B, C and D blocks allotted to the state.

According to sources, TS requested AP to hand over at least the H-Block for providing office space to TS CEO and TS Finance Commission and AP’s response is not known immediately. Andhra Pradesh, after a gap of two years, shut down its I&PR’s Publicity Cell, meant for journalists, on Wednesday and shifted the computers from there. It remains to be seen whether AP will oblige the request of TS and hand over the H-Block to TS or not.

space woes
The state is badly in need of office space at the Secretariat, especially in the H-Block. After the Election Commission of India separated CEOs for both TS & AP, TS has been finding it difficult to provide office space to its new CEO