Vijayawada: The secret congregation of few assistant commissioners and equal rank officers of the Prohibition and Excise department, in a pub located in a famous shopping mall in the Capital city, has attracted the attention of Chief Ministers’ Office (CMO). This meeting was reportedly aimed at creating troubles to a senior bureaucrat in the department. Astonished with the outcome of this secret meeting, the senior officers have started probing further.

The meeting was just a get together, and no hidden agenda behind the meeting, said an Assistant Commissioner rank officer. However, it is learnt that the meeting has discussed elaborately about the transfers and promotions, to be taken place very shortly, and what modus operandi need to be adopted to curtail the influence of the commissioner (Prohibition and Excise), another Assistant Commissioner told this correspondent on strict condition of anonymity. The commissioner Dr. Lakhsmi Narasimha has been implementing strict guidelines to curb the corruption in the department and opposing his moves, a section head cadre officer has reportedly arranged this meeting, for which few assistant commissioners have also attended. Interestingly, a senior officer from the office of the Special chief secretary (Excise) also had participated in the meeting, which raised the eye brows of several senior bureaucrats.



The commissioner (P&E) has been acting tough on the corrupt practices of few staff and other personnel in the key postings, since he took over charge as the Commissioner. This has resulted in creating a pleasant environment and in a recent incident, the Commissioner has directed one of his staff members to go and deposit the amount, he collected from a liquor trader, with the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

Since then, few influential personnel in the department has been trying their level best to move the Commissioner from his Chair and as part of that exercise only, this get together was convened, said an Excise Inspector. “If it is a get together, they would have opted a function hall, what is the need of organizing the get together in a pub, that too in the late night,” he questioned. The department senior officials are tightlipped over this development, which took place a fortnight ago.