OFF THE
RECORD review on: Minister Nitin Raut’s antics & MIDC is the new Soft Target!
pays Energy Minister’s chartered flight expenses?
If anyone
who want to travel private, alone, without anyone knowing with whom they are
going with & where (😉😉) often Chartered flights is the best option available,
but there is a glitch only if you are a politician & that too a Cabinet
Minister. A chartered flight is assigned to the Chief Minister of every state.
Only if he feels or there is an emergency & if the Minister is demanding to
be a certain place and no normal flights are available due to any reason, the
Minister is authorised to use the Chartered flight services & the
Government pays the owner of the chartered flight from their allocated funds.
Now, Mr. Nitin Raut, our Panther from Nagpur and senior Cabinet Minister, has
had innumerable rides on a certain chartered plane and we are guessing it is
for work only. The question arises as to who footed these bills? No, no it
wasn’t from the Government’s pocket…but it was from the three companies under
the Energy Department, I am told… MSETCL, MAHAGENCO & MSEDCL. Yes, all
the 3 IAS heading all 3 companies were called by the Minister in the cabin
& not requested (mind you) but ORDERED to make the payments. Now these 3
companies are allowed to do such payments, but no, not for the Minister– as
neither he is the Director nor the Chairman at any of these 3 companies who are
allowed to use these facilities in times of any emergency work. So, here we go,
my demand is Chief Secretary should issue show-cause notice to all 3 companies
and strict action to be taken if any such ‘out of box’ payments have been
done.
2. C S
Thotwe, abb chale bhi jaao….
So, C S
Thotwe -Director (Operations) at the MAHAGENCO officially retired on the 30th
August 2020 after spending a lot of time at that post. Now it is said in the
corridors of Mantralaya, that Minister Nitin Raut has “struck a sweet
chord” with Thotwe and he wants Thotwe to continue at the post even after his
retirement. But the IAS heading that didn’t approve. He wanted a fresh face
& an officer with a ‘clean’ record. Then as I mentioned, the chord was
struck. On the 27th of August, just 3 days before Thotwe was supposed to
retire, 10 candidates short-listed for the post were asked to do an interview
by way of video conferencing on the 30th. Surprisingly, on the 30th, none of
them were chosen as Director (Operations); Minister Raut immediately dissolved
the whole panel who had set up these interviews, reason they all say is– Mr.
Thotwe was NOT a candidate in these 10 applicants. Now, yesterday was the last
date for filing of applications and for your information, Mr. Thotwe is a
candidate now and due to the “chord struck”, he might resume the
services of Director (Operations) once again…. Bloodsuckers!
MIDC be left alone….
I don’t
know why are the bureaucrats at the top hell bent on disturbing the only
performing department of this government, MIDC? Time & again there have
been instances when the ones at the top want to disturb the harmony and pace of
MIDC. Just last week, there were rumours of Water Resources Secretary Lokesh
Chandra will take over as the new CEO of MIDC and Textiles Secretary Parag
Jaiin Nainuttia will be the new Industries Secretary. Weeks before that, Vijay
Singhal’s name was cropping-up. I don’t know why such news float? Is it really
these officers approach the DALAAL’s for postings or is it someone at the top
who plays dirty with bureaucrat’s emotions who are doing a decent job?
someone told me Vikrant what you had written is turning out to be true too,
Advisor Ajoy Mehta’s name is almost final for RERA… but again CMO sources
indicate that if Sanjay Kumar gets extension as CS for 3 months, why would Ajoy
Mehta go to RERA? Look, we don’t mind changes but let the term of these good
working bureaucrats at least get over. You’ll played with Lokesh Chandra’s
emotions too like this last year…Naysayer’s say that his irrigation post
stint was controversial, but 3 months? An officer of his calibre is shunted out
in 3 months?
BTW
latest gossip, Ajoy Mehta has extended an olive branch towards SVR Shriniwas, (those
who don’t know—SVR Shriniwas was thrown out of BMC and his name had cropped in
Rs. 350 crore road contract scam; Ajoy Mehta was commissioner then) which has
given him a feeling of being a super boss…Officers at MHADA & SRA were
complaining that they are often called anytime of the day, without prior
intimation, in the name of ‘important meetings’.
Vikrant Hemant
Joshi
