The state government on Monday abruptly shifted out Chief Secretary LV Subrahmanyam, a move that shocked the bureaucracy in Andhra Pradesh.

The 1983-batch officer has been posted as Director General of Human Resources Development Institute, an unimportant position.  Chief Commissioner of Land Administration Neerabh Kumar Prasad has been asked to hold the charge of Chief Secretary until further orders.

The decision, which has surprised many comes in the wake of signals emanating from the government that the equation between Subrahmanyam and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has not been cordial in recent times. The trigger, however, came after the Chief Secretary issued a show-cause notice to another senior officer, Praveen Prakash, a handpick of the Chief Minister.

In the notice to Praveen, who is of the rank of principal secretary, the CS accused him of not following business rules and wilful disobedience of orders. Subramanyam charged Praveen with issuing orders without bringing them to his notice, as is required under the rules.

According to sources, the Chief Minister had multiple rounds of consultations with his aides since Monday morning and by afternoon the transfer orders were issued. Subramanyam took over as CS during the election period when the Election Commission gave him the position in the wake of complaints against the then Chief Secretary, AC Puneetha.

Jagan allowed Subramanyam to continue in the position after he became the Chief Minister but the relationship between the two started souring soon with both of them holding different views on multiple issues. While the Chief Minister camp saw it as defiance by the chief secretary, the latter was said to have pointed out that he was only emphasizing the need to sticking to rules while taking decisions.

Former AP Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao said while the chief minister enjoys the power to remove the CS, the manner in which it was done was not proper. "CMO is becoming an institution with all powers and no responsibility and is responsible for the downfall of CMs who are failing to control it,” he tweeted soon after the order became public.