Normally, when an official is felicitated on attaining superannuation one usually talks about his role and contribution to the service. People praise his good qualities and recall their association with him. But when a felicitation function was organised for outgoing chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh Adityanath Das, the talk was not about him and his works. It was about the dire state of AP’s financial position. Almost every speaker talked about the bad economic position of the state.

While praising Adityanath Das, the speakers talked about the lack of even basic amenities in the AP secretariat. They pointed out that the air conditioners were not functioning in the chambers of several ministers and IAS officials. Even Adityanath Das concurred with them and said that the biggest challenge before Sameer Sharma, the new CS, is to mop up revenues for the state. Then he said that principal secretary of finance SS Rawat would ably support him.

The mention of SS Rawat evoked peels of laughter as most officials are upset with him. They are upset because he strikes down all their financial demands. They are unhappy that even justified works were lying pending for months. When the outgoing CS mentioned his name, all these officials had a hearty laugh.

But, many say that the outgoing CS has actually indicated how difficult is the state’s financial position and what kind of a tightrope walking that Sameer Sharma will have to do. Das has aso indicated that CS’s biggest problem will be Rawat. Thus the felicitation function has actually ended up as a litany of financial troubles in AP.