Complaint lodged against district agriculture officer accused of claiming reservations with fake certificate

Agriculture department complained against District Agriculture Officer R Srinivas Rao, accused of availing reservations by furnishing a fake community certificate to get the job for not just one or two years, but over 28 years

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Officials of the agriculture department have lodged a complaint with their higher-ups against in-charge District Agriculture Officer R Srinivas Rao, accusing him of duping the government by availing reservations by furnishing a fake community certificate to get the job for not just one or two years, but over 28 years.

District Agriculture Officer R Srinivas Rao,

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Hailing from Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh, Rao was selected as a staffer in a soil testing lab of the agriculture department in Adilabad district in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in 1997 by claiming reservations to Scheduled Castes. He belongs to ‘Harijana Mala’ as per his service book, according to the complainants, all who were other officials of the department.

They alleged that Rao had declared that he was from ‘SC Mala’ in a declaration submitted to the Centre which was carrying out classifying of communities of weaker sections recently. Similarly, Harijana Mala community is not mentioned in 59 communities classified as three groups in Telangana Gazette published by the State government on April 14, 2025, they allege.

“A complaint was recently raised against Srinivas Rao to higher officials of the agriculture department requesting them to initiate action against the officer for duping the government by producing the fake community certificate,” an official seeking anonymity said.

When asked, Srinivas Rao refuted the allegations and denied that he had not duped the government by submitting the fake community certificate. He claimed that he had submitted a genuine certificate at the time of joining the department. He stated that the service book might have typos with regard to his community. He added that some of his colleagues were making baseless allegations against him.

Since appointment, Rao has been serving in various designations with the agriculture department in several parts of composite Adilabad district and Karimnagar.