Andhra Pradesh: Vivek Yadav appointed as new Guntur collector

AMARAVATI: After a week-long tussle,

State Election Commission

(SEC) has finally conceded the ground and gave green signal for appointment of Vivek Yadav as new district collector of Guntur.


The 2008-batch IAS officer Vivek Yadav would relieve the joint collector

AS Dinesh Kumar

from the additional charge. Interestingly, Yadav, presently serving as member secretary,

AP Pollution Control Board

(PCB), had worked as joint collector in Guntur in the past.


Initially, SEC rejected the panel sent by the state government for appointment of Guntur district collector and proposed the name of

Joint Executive Officer

of TTD,

Basanth Kumar

for the post on its own.

However, the state government firmly stood on its ground and refused to issue a GO appointing Basanth Kumar as district collector as his name was not in the panel sent by the government. Stating that SEC had to pick up one of the officers from the panel sent by the government, chief secretary Dr Adityanath Das sent a fresh panel to the SEC.

Ending the suspense, SEC agreed for the appointment of Vivek Yadav as district collector. The appointment of a new collector was necessitated following the transfer of incumbent collector Samuel Anand Kumar by the SEC. SEC had also transferred Chittor district collector Narayana Bharath Gupta and Tirupati urban SP Avula Ramesh Reddy. While Ch Appala Naidu was appointed as Tirupati urban SP, SEC had delayed clearing the panel for Chittoor collector as well. Subsequently, it cleared the name of Harinarayan as new collector to handle the elections to the local bodies.

Meanwhile, the state government had asked environment secretary GSRKR Vijay Kumar to take additional charge of member secretary of AP PCB. He was relieved from the post of Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA). Municipal administration principal secretary Y Srilakshmi was asked to handle the additional charge of CDMA till further orders. Similarly, special chief secretary (revenue) Rajath Bhargav was asked to take additional charge of excise and prohibition commissioner.