Praveen Prakash — 1994-batch IAS officer is Andhra CM’s go-to man & ‘calls all the shots’

Colleagues describe Prakash as a man of undisputed competence, but questions have emerged about the level of power he wields. The allegations are water off the officer's back.

Praveen Prakash (in sleeveless jacket) serves as Principal Secretary to the CM in his office as well as Secretary of the crucial General Administration Department (GAD) | Twitter | @egodavarigoap

New Delhi: Can you think of an IAS officer who can remove a chief secretary who got into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) 11 years before him? Praveen Prakash, a 1994-batch IAS officer who now serves as Principal Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) of Jagan Mohan Reddy, did exactly that a year ago.

Andhra Pradesh got a new chief secretary last week in Adityanath Das, a 1987-batch IAS officer. But the stakes of power remain pretty much the same a year down the line. 

Although much junior to the half-a-dozen advisers in the CMO, Prakash, civil servants in the state say, is still the one who calls the shots. The two posts he holds — Principal Secretary to the CM as well as secretary of the crucial General Administration Department (GAD), which controls all senior appointments in the state — give him enormous influence over all crucial decisions in the state.

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