After WRD, PWD also gets IAS officer as Secretary


By Kartik Lokhande 
Continuing with the policy of streamlining the administrative decision-making process and curbing the irregularities reported in the past, Maharashtra Government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has appointed a senior IAS officer as administrative top boss of Public Works Department (PWD).
Anand Kulkarni, an IAS officer of 1982 batch, has been named as PWD Secretary. Kulkarni was posted Managing Director of Maharashtra State Financial Corporation (MSFC). He is  the second IAS officer to have been appointed as administrative top boss of the department that had officer of the rank of Chief Engineer or above as Secretary. Some time ago, State Government had appointed senior IAS officer Malini Shankar as Principal Secretary of Water Resources Department (WRD). The moves are aimed at curbing irregularities reported in these two departments in the past.
Confirming the appointment of Kulkarni as PWD administrative top boss, PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil told ‘The Hitavada’ that the Government had taken the step to ‘streamline administrative decision-making’ in the department. According to him, an IAS officer at the helm of administrative affairs in PWD would bring in better discipline and also improve the result-oriented efficiency of the department.
Kulkarni is an officer of the rank of Additional Chief Secretary. As per the order issued by Principal Secretary (Services) Dr Bhagwan Sahay on the very first day of the new year, PWD will have the post of Additional Chief Secretary. Kulkarni was asked to give charge of Managing Director of MSFC to another officer and take up as Additional Chief Secretary of PWD with immediate effect.
Sources in the know of things said that appointment of IAS officer to the post of PWD Secretary was a proposal moved by the then Chief Secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad. The then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had taken up the proposal for consideration before the State Cabinet. However, the proposal was dumped following a strong opposition from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ministers. Nothing happened on that front for a long time.
Later, there were allegations of irregularities in PWD. The name of the then PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal also figured in alleged irregularities in construction of new ‘Maharashtra Sadan’ at Delhi. Similarly, there was a round of allegations of irregularities, controversy, and even public interest litigations over the works executed through PWD at Nagpur. Following these, the demand for better administrative control picked up. As the elections to Legislative Assembly were announced, the decision was kept on hold. With the change in Government, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took up the task of streamlining the functioning of various departments and bring in changes. He decentralised the powers to transfer subordinate officers, to the field level officers. Similarly, his Government appointed IAS officer as Principal Secretary of WRD. 

(Published in The Hitavada CityLine on January 2, 2015) 

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