Kumbhar & Jadhav bring bad name to UD department!
Usually I don’t write about the Mantralaya and Vidhan Bhavan team-members of Ministers. Reason is not specific, but 99.99% work on the wishes and whims of the Minister (s). I write only when they start thinking about themselves that they are bigger than the Minister himself or usually when they don’t maintain protocol and disrespect IAS & IPS officers at Mantralaya. Disrespect, in the sense, they will enter the cabin prior knocking the doors, shout unnecessary in the corridors, sit in cabins expecting tea, call up Collectors & SP’s and instruct them in a crude language rather than being polite so on and so forth. For me it becomes extremely important to write against Private Secretaries (PS), Private Assistants (PA’s) and Officers on Special Duties (OSD) also when they cross their line in case of corruption and when Chai se jyaada kitli is garam…In this MVA government otherwise 90% of PS, OSD and PA’s are alright barring few here and there. But then when a few Chairmans of various Municipal Councils met me, they were hell bent on writing about 2 people who are creating a HAVOC in terms of corruption in the Urban Development Department headed by Minister Eknath Shinde.
Last time when I had written about these PS, PA’s and OSD’s, then CM Prithviraj Chavan had sent a few of them packing home. Do you all recollect that in our old Mantralaya before the fire had broken out, outside every Minister’s cabin there was a wooden board hanging on the wall giving us details as to who is the PS, who is the OSD, who is the PA and who is the Kaksh Adhikari of that Minister, correct? Now what I had done, I clicked photos of all of the 37 to 38 wooden frames hanging outside the Ministers cabin and put those names in an excel sheet against every Minister. So it was clear that this Minister had these xyz staff. Then I had put an RTI to the GAD department asking them for a list of staff every Minister was allocated name-wise/post wise and when the reply came, I compared the photos to the actual list that GAD had given me. You won’t believe friends, 17 to 18 of them whose names were in MAntralaya list, GAD had no clue as to whom they were. They were acting PAs and the ones in the GAD list were either at bunglows or doing madam duty. These fraudsters sat in the Ministers cabin, sat on PA’s charis in official capacity. These were Ministers dalal’s appearing to be PS’s and PAs and OSD’s working without salary and just doing ‘dalaali’. I had written about it and CM Prithviraj Chavan took cognisance and acted upon it and boom, I was famous in these circles. Time has come again to expose a few of those again.
So the one whom I am referring to is Jadhav, who is one of the OSD to Minister Eknath Shinde and the other one is a Kumbhar who was Kaksh Adhikari to Urban Development Development till last week but now he has got promoted and joined the Revenue Department. What is the case and why am I after these two? Here goes the story….One of my friends who came from Western Maharashtra to get funds allocated for his Council, he first approached the Minister Eknath Shinde from where he was guided to the Minister’s OSD Jadhav, who is in charge of this department. Every Minister has people allocated for various works. Jadhav is in-charge of funds allocation to councils. For the unknown, if you come to Minister Eknath Shinde’s staff corridor, maximum crowd is around the cabin of Jadhav as the work of distribution of funds for Panchayat Samiti, councils is to be handled by him. Rest of the OSD’s and PS and PA’s are actually free as compared to Jadhav. Then Jadhav asks the Chairman of Council to submit papers guiding them to meet his team member Kumbhar. Kumbhar of the UD department then gets the funds ready through the UD secretaries and budget and finance department and then keeps the file to himself. Obviously the happy and elated council chairman who get to know that XYZ funds have been sanctioned by the UD Minister, immediately come to Mantralaya for release of funds. But then this is where there is a twist. It is this time when Kumbhar and Jadhav jointly in the name of the Minister demand anything from 3% to 5% depending on the size of funds allocated to them. And 100% advance before is compulsory; it is only when the money is paid, the funds are released. I asked my friend why he didn’t approach the Anti Corruption Bureau when the demand was made. He said, Vikrant, I don’t want funds to be allocated only once and also I don’t want my region to get blacklisted, hence to pay and smile was the only option left. Ridiculous isn’t it ?
By the way, if you feel, complaining to the Urban Development Department Secretary in regard to this Kasksh Adhikari Kumbhar, you will be in for a surprise. This Kumbhar takes UD secretaries too for a ride, so much so that this good looking, extremely plushy dressed Kumbhar (tall, fair now keeps moustache) has the audacity to warn Chairmans of the Council that he can cut or even make additions in the budget, such are his relations in Urban Development, Finance Ministry and Vidhan Bhavan.
Minister Eknath Shinde, I don’t know if you are aware of these antics of Jadhav and Kumbhar. You are doing an excellent job as Urban Development Minister and your work during Covid is unparalleled which will even put your CM to shame, but sir, if in your name Kumbhar and Jadhav’s are making crores per budget allocation to small regions, the onus is directly on you. Already one more SS patil of CIDCO has given you a headache, you don’t want another one, Shinde ji !!
Vikrant Hemant Joshi
