Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120560640500.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Lift’s the problem for these officers

Special Correspondent

Proposed to be built in the rear part of an IAS officer’s quarter

Instead he has proposed that the lift be erected at the entrance to the building
Four senior officers have been sent to make a joint inspection of the site

HYDERABAD: As terror-related concerns are engaging the minds of the higher echelons of the government, about half-a-dozen officers of all-India service were busy on Thursday settling a dispute over a proposal to construct a lift in the residential block at the officers’ complex on Road No. 10 of Banjara Hills here.

The matters came to such a pass that Chief Secretary P. Ramakanth Reddy on Thursday deputed four senior officers, including R.M. Gonela, Principal Secretary (Political) and T. Chatterjee, Principal Secretary, Roads & Buildings, to make a joint inspection of the site.

Mr. Chatterjee told media persons that the committee was sent to look into both options – for and against the lift.

The dispute between Rajiv Trivedi, Additional Director of AP Police Academy, on one side and five other IAS, IPS and IFS officers on the other, has raged since October with Mr. Trivedi opposing construction of the lift on the rear portion of his quarter where two rooms have to be pulled down for the purpose. Instead, he proposed that the lift be erected at the entrance to the building.

Unacceptable

Mr. Trivedi’s suggestion, however, was not acceptable to K. Srinivas Reddy and Ravi Gupta, Deputy Inspectors General of Police, Hyderabad and Eluru Ranges respectively, D. Kadmiel, Director, Tribal Welfare, C. Sudershan Reddy, Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, and Manoranjan Bhanja, Chief Conservator of Forests, Research.

Grouse

Their main grouse was that the lift in front would hamper ventilation and air besides making cumbersome the process of shifting heavy household articles for six families residing on first to third floors of the block. Mr. Trivedi is the sole occupant of the ground floor.

The five officers who lodged a written complaint with the Chief Secretary in October also averred that lifts were being constructed at the rear in the three other blocks of the same complex and it should not be made an exception in their case.

They claimed that the additional accommodation occupied by Mr. Trivedi where the lift was proposed was supposed to be the common area for the entire block and as such it was “unauthorised”. The Estate Officer of the Government, however, overruled the objection of unauthorised construction as it had the requisite sanction. Meanwhile, the Chief Engineer of Roads and Buildings sought the intervention of the Government on how to proceed.