Maha babus learn lesson, bag Rs 7,500cr central aid: India

NEWS:

MUMBAI: Of the Rs 1 lakh crore allocated to states for central schemes by the rural development ministry, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan have secured the maximum financial assistance. Maharashtra, which was instrumental in drafting a dozen schemes for the welfare of the rural and urban poor, has been nowhere near their performance in the last four to five years.

Last year, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Rajasthan secured Rs 6,000 crore and Andhra Pradesh Rs 7,000 crore, while Maharashtra managed only a meagre Rs 225 crore. The scenario was repeated for the Prime Minister’s rural road development scheme and Indira Gandhi housing scheme for the poor.

Union rural development minister Vilasrao Deshmukh reviewed the central schemes after taking over and summoned the rural development, housing and EGS secretaries of other states for making presentations while top bureaucrats from Maharashtra were present. The Maharashtra babus may have learnt a lesson or two as this year Maharashtra is expecting Rs 7,500 crore under the rural employment guarantee scheme, the highest ever in the recent past.

Of course, Deshmukh can’t escape responsibility for the poor central funds as he was chief minister of Maharashtra from 1999 to 2008, barring a brief period when Sushilkumar Shinde took charge.

Taking charge State chief information commissioner (CIC) Vilas Patil is being accused of doing a complete volte face on principles of seniority he himself recommended. When Suresh Joshi was CIC, Patil had written a strongly worded letter to then governor S C Jamir on the seniority of information commissioners. Patil brought to the notice of Jamir that whenever the CIC proceeds on leave, he should hand over charge to the senior-most information commissioner.

Patil, then the senior-most commissioner, was expecting to be made acting CIC when Joshi went on leave. During his five-year tenure, Joshi went on leave for anything between a week to a month but never entrusted charge to Patil. He instead asked Ramanand Tiwari to hold charge.

After Joshi’s retirement, Patil took over as CIC. His colleagues felt Patil would now ensure that whenever he went on leave the senior-most information commissioner, Vijay Kuvalekar in Pune, would be put in charge.

But last month when Patil proceeded on leave he did not put Kuvalekar in charge. Instead, he asked Amravati information commissioner Bhaskar Patil to hold additional charge. More surprisingly, even the charge of Tiwari, Mumbai information commissioner suspended for his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam, has been entrusted to Patil, who now shuttles between Mumbai and Amravati. The speed with which the commission disposes of cases has also been affected by this.

The state-owned 29-storey Bell Heaven, adjacent to Bombay Hospital in South Mumbai, houses high-ranking babus and top policemen. Bureaucrats associated with the departments of rural development, labour, home, school, higher education and medical education, as also IPS officers, are among the prominent occupants of the tower.

These babus advise chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad on several issues. In fact, the rural development department has drafted a law to ensure that if there is no toilet at a person’s residence then s/he should be barred from contesting polls. Some of the IPS officers living there also advise home minister R R Patil on measures to curb the menace of drug addiction. But barring a few, all occupants of this tower appear to be helpless when combating it themselves.

The entire tower is surrounded by drug addicts and anti-social elements, particularly in the evenings. On occasion, babus are unable to enter their own complex at night because drug addicts are sitting at the entrance. More than a dozen babus have confirmed that Bell Heaven is like hell. A few years ago, a senior bureaucrat tried to get rid of the drug addicts but was silenced by none other than a cabinet member. The bureaucrat has since shifted to a safer apartment.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com – TNN / May 30th, 2011

 

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