MUMBAI, Feb 2: The Sena-BJP government's decision to grant extensions to all the three non-official members of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) has been greeted with conflicting views on whether it construes a violation of the code of conduct.Chief Electoral Officer D K Shankaran said he would not like to comment on the appointments in the absence of any complaint, but admitted that the government had not sought his permission or consent before granting extensions either to the board of directors or to the non-official members. A complaint was however received by Chief Election Commission M S Gill from a Congress MLA in Kolhapur, Khanvilkar, who described the state government's move as ``improper''.``I feel that the Election Commission should immediately revoke these appointments as it had done in the case of Uttar Pradesh,'' Khanvilar said.The state government on Saturday extended by two months the tenure of the entire board of directors headed by its chairman, PurushottamGajralwar. The non-official members of the board are Sudam Mandlik, a close aide of Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, Ashok Samant, who is a known supporter of Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and Anil Rathod, son of Gajdhar Rathod, an independent legislator supporting the alliance government.Another official of the election branch maintained that the move did indeed violate the code. ``The code of conduct is very clear. All non-official appointments directly violate the code of conduct and as such, the extension given to the trio should be revoked,'' the official said.Defending the appointments, Principal Secretary (Energy) Ashok Basak said the extensions were well within the powers of the government, adding that under the existing rules, the government could extend the tenures for as long as six months.``In view of the imminent parliamentary elections, we have granted an extension for just two months,'' Basak told The Indian Express.The state government was not required to seekpermission from the Chief Electoral Officer or the Election Commission of India as these were not new appointments, Basak pointed out.``We have taken the decision in public interest as it is our duty to ensure that the government carries out its day-to-day administration. We had no choice but to grant an extension to the board of directors,'' he added.Moreover, said Basak, if the extensions were not granted, the board would have come to standstill since the government was not in a position to make immediate alternate arrangements.``For effective functioning of the organisation, we need the entire board,'' the Principal secretary said. ``While the term of three non-official members expired on Saturday, another member (Accounts) is retiring soon. Under such circumstances, it was essential to grant an extension to the entire board of directors.''
