Eyebrows are being raised over deputy CM Ajit Pawar‘s unexpected letter to CM Devendra Fadnavis over the transfer and posting of a section of high-ranking bureaucrats. Significantly, Pawar’s request was accepted by the CM with lightning speed and new orders were issued the same day. Now, it has become a matter of discussion in the corridors of power.
When additional chief secretary (forest) Milind Mhaiskar was relieved from the excise department, it was considered a routine transfer since he was holding its additional charge.It was found that changes in the bureaucracy were made at the instance of Pawar, who had urged Fadnavis to give the department’s additional charge to additional chief secretary (planning) Rajgopal Deora, and appoint Rajesh Deshmukh as excise commissioner in place of Vijay Suryawanshi. He sought that Suryawanshi take over as Konkan divisional commissioner from Deshmukh. Deshmukh has been given additional responsibility as secretary in Pawar’s office.
Bureaucrats have expressed surprise over Mhaiskar’s sudden exit, particularly when he was considered close to Fadnavis. Mhaiskar had earlier worked as principal secretary (forest), which he has now returned to.
CM loses cool over
cabinet agenda leak
Fadnavis is upset over the cabinet agenda being leaked to a section of the electronic and print media, although most subjects were routine and there was nothing startling. After the weekly cabinet meeting, Fadnavis expressed his strong displeasure, saying if the agenda is leaked again, he would have to take stern action against erring cabinet members and bureaucrats. Significantly, he did not spell out the action.
In the past several decades, the cabinet agenda has been leaked on a number of occasions. Successive CMs made attempts to keep the agenda a top secret but failed. A senior bureaucrat said it is a difficult task since several copies of the agenda are circulated. The late CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, too, had expressed strong displeasure on several occasions whenever the cabinet agenda was leaked. He, however, found a novel way to address the issue—whenever any of the items on the agenda was mentioned in the media before a cabinet meeting, he used to drop the subject from the agenda and take it up at the next meeting. In a lighter vein, he had once suggested creating a special gallery for the media in the cabinet hall itself. Then, it was a routine practice that after the weekly cabinet meetings, a section of ministers used to have off-the-record media briefings. Fadnavis would have to draft a new strategy to halt cabinet agenda leaks.
