Three Ministers, Three Collectors: Khammam’s officials caught between a rock and a hard place

Khammam district has seen three Collectors transferred in less than two years, reportedly due to political pressures from three Ministers whose overlapping schedules and directives have left officials struggling to balance competing agendas.

Khammam: Khammam district having three Ministers seems to be posing a challenge to senior IAS officers to serve here, if the transfer of three district Collectors in a span of two years is any indication.

It might be noted that a 2014-batch IAS officer VP Gautham who assumed charge of the district Collector in July 2021, was transferred from the district within six months of the Congress party coming to power in December, 2023.

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Muzammil Khan, a 2017-batch IAS officer, who was posted as the district Collector in June 2024 was transferred within a year in June, 2025. He was replaced by a 2018-batch IAS officer Anudeep Durishetty, who took charge in June 2025.

Durishetty was transferred within 10 months after he assumed charge of the post. His transfer has been seen as a fallout of demolition of houses at Velugumatla, which was carried out at the orders of a district Minister, and subsequent developments.

Social media is abuzz with rumours that he was made scapegoat for the actions of the district Minister, who was behind the demolition of over 700 houses built on Bhoodan lands at Velugumatla to benefit his followers.

It is being said that besides the Collectors the district officials are facing it tough to coordinate with the three Ministers Bhatti Vikramarka, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Tummala Nageswara Rao, whose schedules are often overlapping with each other.

For instance, Minister Nageswara Rao visited Sathupalli to review progress of the Sitarama project on April 22 at around 9.30 am and on the same day Minister Srinivas Reddy was scheduled to launch development works in Edulapuram Municipality at the same time.

This kind of overlapping schedules of the Ministers often leaves the district officials perplexed as to which Ministers’ programme they have to attend and worry about the consequences if they failed to attend any of the programmes.

The same is the case with the schedules of Vikramarka, who reportedly insists on the presence of the Collector and Commissioner of Police at his programmes, which are mostly confined to his Madhira constituency.

Due to the presence of three Ministers, officials are caught between a rock and a hard place. Officials are being overwhelmed by the task of implementing the Ministers’ individual agendas rather than focusing on actual development works, the local BRS leaders complain.