Mumbai confidential: Dirty Picture

Omprakash Shetye, an Officer on Special Duty in the Chief Minister’s Office who has been monitoring distribution of aid under the CM’s Assistance Fund to poor patients, has offered to quit. The reason: CM Devendra Fadnavis’s move to appoint a new seven-man committee under Health Secretary Pradeep Vyas to scrutinise and approve applications received for such aid. The CM has also appointed Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan to review the work of the CM’s Medical Assistance Cell.

Cracking The Whip

Devendra Fadnavis is a miffed man. Several departments continue to dispatch cabinet matters for approval at the last minute in spite of his repeated instructions that this won’t be tolerated. Cracking the whip, the CM has now evolved a code of clearance for cabinet proposals. Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick has issued orders making it clear that bureaucrats heading departments will be held accountable if this was not followed.

Fund Raiser

Tales abound in the corridors of power about how a top bureaucrat had got a state-run board to fund the renovation work of his own office. Reportedly, the bureaucrat concerned was at the helm of the same board when these funds were sanctioned. Incidentally, while the public works department, which had overseen Mantralaya’s revamp, has a standard design for offices of bureaucrats, this one wears a totally different look.

That’s An Order!

Suryakant Shinde, the Principal District and Sessions Court judge in Nashik, is in the news for issuing a circular, warning judicial employees of disciplinary action if they were found occupied on WhatsApp messaging platform or making phone calls during office hours. Further, the judge has asked his subordinate to collect phone numbers of each employee so that call data records of an employee can be obtained if required. The judge has said he has found that employees spend all their time on the messaging platform and in unnecessary chatter, impacting official work.

Tailpiece

Firms and charitable trusts continue to employ top-ranking bureaucrats to improve their clout in Mantralaya. The latest grapevine involves a former Maharashtra chief secretary, who, it turns out, has been liaisoning for a trust that has undertaken a major redevelopment project in South Mumbai. The same former bureaucrat is also known to liaison in the same manner for a leading manufacturing firm. The redevelopment project in question has also been in the limelight.