Mumbai confidential: Getting To The Point

Devendra Fadnavis knew in advance that his act of rejigging portfolios may not go down well with some of his senior ministers.

ramraje naik, devendra fadnavis, ravindra chavan, mumbia news, mumbai confidential, india news

The man means business. He wants to constitute a working group to make the legislative process more effective and people-centric.

Getting To The Point

Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, the 29th descendent of the royal family from Phaltan in Satara district, has just been re-elected as the Chairman of the state’s Legislative Council. And the man means business. He wants to constitute a working group to make the legislative process more effective and people-centric. While the legislature talks and makes laws about things that affect people’s lives, he believes that endless discussions are an avoidable irritant. Nimbalkar disclosed his wish just minutes after Legislative Council members had spent two-and-a half hours discussing on a motion-of-thanks on his reelection and the nomination of the new leader and Opposition leader of the state Legislative Council.

Dropping The Bomb

Devendra Fadnavis knew in advance that his act of rejigging portfolios may not go down well with some of his senior ministers. So he decided to time the delivery of the bad news. The Chief Minister’s office waited till Fadnavis had checked in for his flight to Russia before breaking the news. Our friends in the bureaucracy tell us that the list was made long before, but Fadnavis opted for the ‘shoot and scoot’ game. This way he avoided a face-to-face with the sulking minister giving them time to brood and calm down before he returns from the trip. Well played!

Haste Makes Waste

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The BJP’s Ravindra Chavan appeared to have paid the price for pulling the trigger to early. For even before Devendra Fadnavis formally allocated portfolios to the newly inducted ministers, supporters of Chavan, who was newly inducted as a junior minister in the government, put up billboards and hoardings congratulating their man for securing the all important MoS (home, urban) portfolio. The move boomeranged. Chavan never got the home portfolio, and had to settle for lesser portfolios.

Controversial Transfer

Eyebrows were raised in the bureaucracy over Fadnavis’s decision to abruptly move out Pravin Gedam, a 2002 batch IAS officer, from the Nashik civic chief’s post. The grapevine in the corridors of power is that a senior minister had pressured Fadnavis for Gedam’s transfer. In his 20-month stint, Gedam had cracked the whip on illegal constructions. He had also acted against indisciplined and corrupt civic officials. While Nashik witnessed some protests following the transfer announcement, the state government went ahead with the move. Murmurs of discontent can be heard in the bureaucracy against the revolving chair spectacle of routinely shunting out bureaucrats.

Talent Hunt

Devendra Fadnavis is on a recruitment drive. Two senior CMO officials-Vivek Bhimanwar and Rajesh Narvekar- have been inducted in the IAS-cadre, and are on their way out. The hunt is on to find suitable replacements for the duo. Our sources in the bureaucracy confirm that Fadnavis wants the duo to stay on till their successor is found. The buzz is that both of them will stay on till the end of the monsoon session of the legislature, which will commence on July 18.

(compiled by Sandeep Ashar)

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