Telangana bureaucrats caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, says KTR

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao has claimed that senior bureaucrat S.A.M. Rizvi applying for voluntary retirement from service with over nine years of service still left, clearly indicates the situation of All India Service (AIS) officers in Telangana.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday (October 23, 2025), he compared the situation of the bureaucrats to being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy pulling them from one side and his Cabinet colleagues pulling them from the other end over contracts and bills.

In the case of Mr. Rizvi, the pressure behind his opting for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) apparently stemmed from an Excise Department tender that was sought by the kin of Mr. Revanth Reddy and Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, he claimed.

Unable to digest that his son did not receive the tender, the Excise Minister has now written to the Chief Secretary to halt the VRS proceedings of Mr. Rizvi and has requested action against the bureaucrat for violating service rules by not obeying his (the Cabinet Minister’s) instructions. Mr. KTR further alleged that the Minister had also made wild accusations against Mr. Rizvi, claiming that he helped a firm pay ₹6.5 crore in excess for the hologram-making contract.

The BRS leader said Mr. Rizvi was an officer of integrity and had all the qualifications to become the Cabinet Secretary at the Centre. He noted that Mr. Rizvi held various positions in the Energy Department and earned a reputation as a no-nonsense and upright officer. He was removed from the Energy Department by Mr. Revanth Reddy for not toeing the government line regarding the previous government’s (BRS) handling of the 24×7 power supply issue, Mr. Rama Rao said.

Suggesting that bureaucrats should not be part of the “sins” of the Congress Government, Mr. Rama Rao stated that they would become scapegoats like Mr. Rizvi. The BRS leader questioned the police about who aimed the gun at whom, who arranged it for the handlers to allegedly threaten the owners of Deccan Cements, and why the police had not registered a case on this matter so far, even after Minister Konda Surekha’s daughter clearly addressed it in a video statement.

The BRS working president alleged that the Chief Minister’s residence had become an abode of settlements and sought to know on what basis the Konda couple of TPCC chief had felicitated Mr. Revanth Reddy after the public spat with some Ministers.

Further, he accused the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of running a joint venture government in Telangana, citing the Centre’s silence on gun culture incidents in the State.