In a first, TN govt appoints senior bureaucrats as official spokespersons

CHENNAI: For the first time in TN, the state government on Monday appointed four senior IAS officers of the ranks of additional chief secretaries as government spokespersons to educate the people about schemes of the government departments and coordinate with other departments.

According to an official communique received from the state government, additional chief secretary of the state home department Dheeraj Kumar, additional chief secretary cum chairman of TNEB J Radhakrishnan, additional chief secretary of revenue departments P Amudha and additional chief secretary of rural development department Gagandeep Singh Bedi have been appointed as spokespersons of the state government.

As per the government release, Radhakrishnan will be the spokesperson for energy, health, transport, cooperatives, overseas Tamils welfare, school and higher education, handloom and human resources management departments. Dheeraj Kumar IAS will be in charge of home and prohibition departments, while Amudha will be spokesperson for revenue, social welfare, disabled welfare, Adi Dravidar welfare, BC welfare, housing, highways, tourism and special programme implementation departments.

Gagandeep Singh Bedi will be spokesperson for municipal administration, rural development, animal husbandry, agriculture, water resources, environment, MSMEs, industries and natural resources departments. Secretaries will provide details pertaining to the announcements and achievements of their departments to the respective spokespersons. The government spokespersons will brief the media accurately in consultation with the chief secretary, the release said, justifying that the government spokespersons were appointed to provide factually accurate information to the people expeditiously in time.

The appointment has also drawn criticism, with sympathisers of the opposition parties alleging that the ruling party was using bureaucrats to advance its political interests.