Letters and counter letters with allegations and counter allegations have become common in Andhra Pradesh these days. This is strangely happening in between the heads of constitutional institutions as well. Now, AP Chief Secretary Adityanath Das has written a counter letter in reply to State Election Commissioner Ramesh Kumar’s letter. The CS clarified to the SEC that he could not remove Praveen Prakash from the Principal Secretary of the CMO.

The Chief Secretary further clarified that Praveen Prakash was not assigned any election duty. Hence, the election code would not be applicable to him. As such, the Government deemed it unnecessary to carry out the SEC orders to remove Praveen from his present position and also prevent him from interfering with the election process.

In his latest letter, the Chief Secretary asked the State Election Commissioner to reconsider and review his orders relating to Praveen Prakash. On the other hand, Ramesh Kumar was increasingly asserting his position as the sole person vested with the constitutional powers to supervise the Government’s activities and programmes in view of the election code. The High Court has also asserted the same in its latest order relating to the ration delivery vehicles.

With the latest CS letter, it has triggered a debate on whether some of the Government staff could be spared from the election code or not.