Burra Venkatesham to be the new chairman of Telangana Public Service Commission

Principal Secretary of Telangana Education Department, Burra Venkatesham will take charge as Chairman of Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC). File
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

IAS officer Burra Venkatesham will be the new Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) chairman. The incumbent M. Mahender Reddy is set to retire on December 3, 2024 as he will complete 62 years. Mr. Reddy took charge of the post in January of this year after an overhaul of the commission. The commission has recently invited applications for the chairman post.

Mr. Venkatesham is likely to take charge on the same day Mr. Reddy retires and before that, he will submit his resignation seeking voluntary retirement from the All India Services. Currently, Mr. Venkatesham is the Principal Secretary of Education. He also holds the Full Additional Charge as the Principal Secretary to Governor Jishnu Dev Verma.

Studied in Residential School

Mr. Venkatesham hails from the combined Warangal district and studied at the then AP Residential School (now TS Residential School) in Sarvail village in Nalgonda district. The IAS officer was not in the limelight in the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government but was awarded with crucial posts once the Congress took over given his track record as the Collector of Medak and Guntur districts in the combined Andhra Pradesh.

The Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy apparently wanted a person with credibility and commitment who could make decisions expeditiously to head the Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC), which was mired in controversies since Telangana was formed. The commission lost the trust of the candidates appearing for recruitment tests due to Group-I paper leak and inordinate delay in conducting the tests due to court cases.

Mr. Mahender Reddy, who retired as the DGP of Telangana, was brought in to restore the image and conduct the Group-I test without any hiccups though his tenure was to be less than a year.

Mr. Venkatesham, who still has over four years of service, will now opt for voluntary retirement immediately so that he could take charge of the new position on December 3.