Bureaucracy Reshuffle…
So not the Ajoy Mehta camp, not the Marathi camp, but this time the IAS who were transferred belong to the ‘freelancers’ group as what I call them. They don’t belong to any camps; “Ekla Chalo re” is the mantra for these senior IAS in Maharashtra . Overall, many of them whom I spoke to yesterday have taken these transfers in their stride and are moving on. Felt a bit surprised that a few were being sidelined. But that is not the case. Today is October 1, 2022. Let’s lay a bet and wait for October 1, 2023. The picture will change completely for the ones whom you feel are sidelined and feeling happy about it.
Anyway, I keep hearing that Dr Nitin Kareer keeps denying to take up a much deserving or post of his stature whenever he is offered one. Reason is unknown. He is happy being at Revenue, but his opposite camp claims he might deny now but what happens behind closed doors is altogether another thing. I don’t think Dr Kareer is of that nature. He is frank and on the face type of a person and believe me he is the best person to head our Mumbai Corporation even when opportunity comes. I once rang him up and cautioned/told him about ‘what all is floating in the market’ . Dr Kareer immediately distanced himself from those people who were spoiling his name unnecessarily. He is a very helpful, non-controversial and a very good man, just like our very own Bhushan Gagrani. Both of them help you out, even if you’re not known to them. Ask a few MLAs of BJP,Congress, NCP and Shivsena and yes ask new IAS’s too…
Now if you have seen the orders, none of the powerful ones were touched as written in my blog on September 8th. Mhada, BMC (due to upcoming BMC elections), MMRDA (Due to high interest rates 😄😄), SRA, CIDCO are not being changed. But also, now I am told that another list is being made of 12 to 15 officers including Pune, and there will be few changes. Kailash Jadhav has come to MSRDC, Abhijit Bangar as Thane MC, Bhausaheb Dandge as KDMC MC, and Ashok Shingare is the new Thane Collector. All 4 are a part of one camp and have also shown their loyalties to CM Shinde since day 1. Many were surprised that Rajesh Narvekar, whose son is married to Shivsena’s Sanjay Raut’s daughter, was made Navi Mumbai Municipal Commissioner. Friends, understand, more than his personal relations, this man keeps his loyalties, and we all know where that lies. I felt a bit bad for Dr P. Anbalgan. I mean giving him Mahagenco is OK, but he could have done a fantastic job in any of the infrastructure corporations. I don’t go on what people say, but just look at what has been done with the MIDC in spite of so many hurdles he faced. Now, not so friendly types, loyal to CM Shinde, Vipin Sharma has a lot to do in the MIDC. A lot of people after the Vedantaa Foxconn debacle are keeping their eye on this department including central agencies. Heard Minister Uday Samant too wasn’t happy with his department’s call being taken by Ajay Bhai and Shinde Saab.
Valsa Singh Nair has become the new Housing Secretary. Was just thinking as to how she will cope up with so many giants? Giants in the sense– dalaal’s; we all shouldn’t forget that at the end of the day even this Government, especially the Shinde group, is here to make some moolah as it will be a requirement for all the elections and what better than Housing. How Valsa Singh handles this, or will she get frustrated only time will say. Getting Mhada and SRA to perform will be her top priority. Harshdeep Kamble as Principal Secretary for Industries is a welcome move and so is the appointment of Pravin Darade as Environment Secretary. He was kept out for long. Some postings are obvious right? Just like Darade comes in the main fray, so did Ashwini Joshi and Depeendra Singh Khushwah. But even when any Government changes, why and how come people like Tukaram Mundhe, Rajendra Nimbalkar are ignored by all. Time for themselves to ponder on their behavioural aspects. Felt bad for Dr Pradeep Kumar Vyas for being sidelined so badly. So it can be concluded that during Covid when the BJP made all those allegations of corruption being done in Covid, feel this must be one of the reasons for him to go in spite of no fault of his. Avinash Dhakne gets side posting and gets replaced by Vivek Bhimanwar. Sad to see Dhakne’s order come on his birthday.
Surprisingly, as I wrote in the beginning, none of the powerful camps were disturbed except one or two. Manukumar Shrivastava can breathe easy as now no one is pressuring DF/ES to become the Chief Secretary. In round 2, I have heard Sonia Sethi can be moved out of UD 2 as many, from the CM to his stooges, everyone is unhappy with her due to her ‘too much in the face’ nature. Vinita Singhal will be with the department for sometime. I feel for Idzes Kundan as she could have done a brilliant job as Environment Secretary but as I said list 2 is on the way soon. Jayshree Bhoj again gets sidelined and is handed over DGIPR which is not doing justice to her image. Deepak Kapoor got what I had written.
Overall this is just the beginning. It is not a record of Shinde/Fadnavis to transfer 44 bureaucrats in one night as claimed by TOI and neither it has Fadnavis stamp. It has both Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis stamp. By the way, the record is the transfer of 80 bureaucrats when Fadnavis became the CM in 2014 in one go. So wait and watch for this space for some more….
Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
