What is the reason for the VRS of senior IAS officer and Excise Principal Secretary SAM Rizvi? Why did he suddenly have to take voluntary retirement with eight years of service left? Did the liquor label manufacturing scandal lead to his VRS? Did Rizvi became victim in the fight between the elders for the packets? Did he resign from his job after being unable to convince the elders and coordinate with the minister?
This is the heated debate going on in IAS circles now. Despite the possibility of reaching the level of Chief Secretary (CS) in the state and the level of Secretary at the Center in the future, he applied for VRS citing personal reasons. The government approved the application and CS Ramakrishna Rao issued orders on Wednesday stating that his retirement will be effective from 31st of this month.
There are allegations that Rizvi has fallen victim to the ongoing fight between two ruling party leaders regarding the tenders for manufacturing high-security holograms and 2D bar coding labels. However, a letter written by Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao himself to the CS asking him to reject Rizvi’s VRS has come to light.
This has further increased suspicions about Rizvi’s resignation. Rizvi, who studied Electrical Engineering at IIT Kanpur and Marketing and Public Policy at IIM Ahmedabad, has earned a reputation as an honest officer in his 26 years of service. He is currently serving as Principal Secretary of the Commercial Taxes and Excise Department and Principal Secretary of the General Administration Department with additional responsibilities.
It is reported that Rizvi, who is the Principal Secretary, has written a letter to the Chief Secretary of the Excise Department to the government stating that he did not heed the orders given by him as a minister and that action should be taken on this. In particular, the minister seems to have mentioned the orders given to change the company in the case of liquor labels and the formation of an expert committee on holograms, although it met only once.
There was discussion at that time that Big Brothers had their eye on this tender, which has a turnover of about Rs. 100 crore. There were allegations that they had entered into an agreement with the old company and handed over the supply back to them.
However, there was discussion that even the minister concerned was not aware of this matter. Speculations abounded that there were internal differences or political pressures behind the minister writing this letter after the CS orders and the voluntary retirement of an officer who had a chance of getting high positions.