Ajit Pawar, the leader of the opposition, criticised the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government for giving bureaucrats ministerial authority. According to Pawar, delays in the state cabinet expansion deprive the representatives chosen by the people of their rights. He continued, ‘Such an order will lead a bad precedent in the state.’
Maharashtra’s Chief Secretary Manukumar Shrivastava had issued an order on August 4 with the instructions of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to give the secretaries in the state administration until further notice the quasi-judicial powers of cabinet ministers and ministers of state. This order has made all near-term possibilities for cabinet expansion impossible.
In the order, the chief secretary stated that the additional secretary, principal secretary, and secretaries of concerned departments have been granted quasi-judicial authority to conduct appeals, revisions, and review applications as well as to give interim orders on pending cases and dispose of cases by holding urgent hearings in important time-bound cases until further orders from the chief minister.
The late Chief Minister Shankarao Chavan renamed Sachivalaya to Mantralaya in order to ensure that governance is people-oriented and the people feel that it is their government, according to Atul Londhe, chief spokesperson of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC). Since public representatives are chosen by the wider population to lead the government, it should be they who make the decisions, not secretaries.
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