HYDERABAD: Senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi, who is under the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) scanner for her alleged role in the illegal mining scam, has reportedly put the blame on then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. Srilakshmi said that she signed all the files pertaining to
granting of mining leases to Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by jailed mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, following orders from the late YSR.
Once considered as one of the most powerful bureaucrats in the state, with several well wishers even in Delhi, this 1988 cadre IAS officer, today finds herself completely out of favour and luck. Srilakshmi also carries the tag of being the richest IAS officer in the state. Recently, when Srilakshmi tried to meet Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at his camp office to justify her position, she was asked to wait along with the regular visitors. Finally, when her turn came, the Chief Minister wrapped up the meeting in two minutes.
“There is nothing to look forward in life. I have been defamed completely and have no future in administrative service. I am now living only for my children,’’ is what Srilakshmi told the CBI while she was being questioned. Her IPS officer husband Gopikrishna is presently posted as IGP, CID.
“I joined the service at the age of 22 and I would have gone to the highest levels in the administrative service, but it is all over now,’’ she told her interrogators, who have no choice but to listen to her. Sometimes, she even broke down while telling CBI officers about the “trauma’’ she is undergoing.
In fact, after several rounds of questioning by the CBI, Srilakshmi left for Chennai to spend sometime with her sister who stays there. She returned to Hyderabad only after a week, to be questioned by the CBI.
Srilakshmi, presently posted as Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, has been named as accused number three by the CBI. It is being alleged that Srilakshmi, while working as Secretary, Industries had released Government Order 151 (dated June 18, 2007) allowing 20 years of mining lease to OMC.