OFF THE RECORD review on some of the headlines…
Salaries of Government Employees and their woes…
It came as a surprise to me that so many banks (nationalized and privatized) are being used to put salaries in their accounts of our state government employees in Maharashtra, officers in Mantralaya, IAS and IPS officers. After the GR of Government of India where usage of privatized banks was to be stopped for salaries purposes yet, in our Maharashtra Government many of them receive from HDFC, Axis and so on. In IPS, people receive salaries from different banks if he/she is posted in different cities. Say if the officer is in Pune, he will receive his salary in HDFC and if he comes to Mumbai he will receive either from a nationalized bank or at times even from a privatized Axis bank. It was told to me from the Finance Department, that various banks approach different HODs and they get the employee accounts once the deal is sealed. Government does not issue specific bank directions, hence the HODs are at their leisure to choose banks. Now God forbid, if the HOD is typical, he will prefer nationalized banks and leave the employees at the mercy of dealing with the staff of nationalized banks. We all know what kind of service we get. Majority of the staff in these nationalized banks behave as if they have obliged us by giving permission to open our accounts there. These nationalized banks are still far behind in terms of services as compared to privatized banks. But then, after the Chanda Kochar issue, people are ready to deal with ‘khadus’ employees of nationalized banks than open in privatized banks and be scared for their deposits too. Thank God, co-operative banks are not proposed, else our Fixed Deposits will be in the hands of some leaders of Western Maharashtra.
The reason I am writing on this issue is because one entire department of this Government was banking with Axis Bank for a very long time. In 2019, when the MVA came in power and MVA had no answer to the onslaught they were facing from Devendra Fadnavis, they decided to get back to him through the Mrs. Since Mrs. Fadnavis is an employee of the Axis bank even today, this department in which the ‘Prince’ had keen interest, the Government removed a GR and changed the salaries accounts of the employees of this department to a nationalized bank. No problem at all, legally and technically! But the problem this department employees faced is many people who have been working in this department for years, have procured loans, made investments in and through Axis Bank. Naturally the payouts, EMIs and planning of funds have happened through Axis Bank. Now suddenly all the salary comes in a nationalized bank. Then what do they do? If they close the Axis bank account, again procure loan, again submit documents and all of that lengthy procedure. Then what are these employees doing? These employees now since last 4 years the day salaries hit their accounts in State Bank, every employee he/she does is transfer the entire salary into Axis Bank as the payouts are planned from the bank account of Axis and not a nationalized bank. Isn’t it time for the Finance department to come together on one page and sort such issues?
RTO, kya chal raha hai?
After the debacle in the RTO department during the MVA regime, it is surprising that since the last 2 years the transfer and promotion business in the department has just stopped. Important posts of RTO at Andheri and Wadala remain vacant and so do the posts of Joint Commissioners. The department has abolished the posts of ‘Deputy Transport Commissioners’ and they will be called the Joint Commissioners now on. There are 5 such posts but out of that too, only 1 has been filled and the rest lie vacant. Why? Just because ‘Bajrang Bali’ is not active, this department does not believe in any transfer and promotion work. Deputy RTO (Deputy Regional Transport Officers) posts in rest of Maharashtra where Deputy RTO’s are the bosses in tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, even their posts lie vacant. Big cities like Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune where RTO’s are the bosses, they lie vacant too. It has been told to me that no one wants to fall in the ‘transfer zhol’ and hence no one approaches the government to take up the matter. Dy RTO’s are happy in their space and in-fact people are not ready to become Joint Commissioners because it is considered as a side posting with no ‘malai’. They prefer to stay on field rather than sitting in Transport Commissioner offices. The Minister and the Secretary prefer to get work done from one Joint Commissioner who is pressured to another level. So many RTO’s I know have retired from their posts without getting their promotions in the last 2 years. Is money everything for those ruling the RTO department? The website of the RTO was last updated in August 2020 and see by yourself the number of officers/employees on the list whose posts lie vacant. On speaking with Parrag Jaiin Nainutia, Principal Secretary of the Department, he said, the posts that lie vacant will be filled in shortly and the promotions of officers will happen in consultation with the GAD and MPSC , which I feel will take ages and again many people will retire without their promotion who deserve it and the work in tier 2 and tier 3 towns will continue to suffer.
Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
