20 IAS officers got transferred yesterday. I am told more transfers are to come either today or the next week. Posts of Secretary at the PWD, UD1, Revenue, MMRDA Commissioner, Nashik Municipal Commissioner either are vacant or additionally handled. Important portfolio’s such as these cannot be kept vacant or have a boss whose hands are already full. Two transfers that happened yesterday, that of I.A. Kundan and Vijay Singhal, were the talk of the town the whole day and evening.
It is said I.A Kundan’s name was there on the list, but her being appointed as PS Minority Development Department is a bit downgrading for an officer of her calibre. People have felt bad for Kundan. Anup Yadav has replaced Kundan as the new Secretary, Women and Child Welfare Department. Let’s pray his Bhavishya remains Ujjwal in the department. By the way, till the evening when orders were released, Vijay Singhal’s name was not there anywhere on the list. You know how gossip travels, right? After the list was out, many of them called me and said that the Energy Department Secretary Abha Shukla was the reason for Vijay’s ouster. I was surprised. I mean she ain’t like that. Yes, she did enjoy excellent relations with ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray and now also it is said Devendra Fadnavis too has a soft corner for both Abha Shukla and her husband Lokesh Chandra. Guess, work done at Maharashtra Sadan days was kept in mind by Fadnavis. But I have heard a different story altogether. In fact, to take you back to when Vijay was the CMD at MAHADISCOM, Vijay would get his work done from Shukla, where many including the Director’s and other IAS’s returned empty handed after trying to persuade her for various permissions. Vijay knew how to get his work done. What happened, God alone knows. Yes, but there were days too when the entire department was not on one page with their Secretary. It had become a regular practice that the department was on one side and Abha Shukla on the other. This complaint had reached Fadnavis too. Everyone thought that it would be Abha Shukla who would be transfered but to everyone’s surprise (and a little emotional drama in front of Fadnavis) Vijay was made the scapegoat. Now, you know what the surprise is? Vijay is replaced by Lokesh Chandra (husband of Abha Shukla) as Chairman MAHADISCOM.
But I feel for Vijay Singhal. He has no one but to blame his luck for the 3rd time now. It happened with him at the BMC when he was the Additional Commissioner, then again when he was the Thane Municipal Commissioner and now as Chairman & MD at the MSEDCL. Is the luck of Vijay that bad that all 3 times that he is shunted abruptly or is there something else which does not meet the eye? Vijay enjoyed good rapport with all his bosses and in fact in the last 2 years in his current assignment, MSEDCL was showing progressive growth and even profit. Then what happened? I think, luck!
It is said Aseem Gupta will take charge of UD1 and Manisha Mhaiskar is leading the race for the PWD and Ashwini Bhide as MMRDA commissioner, but let’s see. Anything can happen here. I had heard a leading Lady IAS officer was in consideration for the spot of the Revenue Department Secretary but it was on special instructions of MRS. Radhakrushna Vikhe Patil, it is said they didn’t want a lady officer at the Secretary level. I think the Minister is using an iPhone for the first time. His ‘love’ for FaceTime even during meetings remains unmatched which made the missues issue the ‘fatwa’.
Thank God, SVR Sriniwas had made his way out of the MMRDA. Sonia Sethi is gone too. Heard she wanted CIDCO. Many of these officers have Uddhav’phobia’. EX CM came for 2 days to Mantralaya during his tenure of 2.5 years as the CM, and here few of these bureaucrats suffering from Uddhavphobia (especially few lady IAS officers) come to Mantralaya for 2 hours to work and go home. And look at their demands. CM Shinde is smart to understand this now. By the way, during the early days of the MVA government one of my friends was being considered for PCMC (Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner) by then DCM Ajit Pawar. But a very senior IAS officer who also retired as CS showed pictures of mine with that officer which were posted on my Facebook. Imagine my clout in his mind, he was CS then, he had to open my Facebook page and show Ajit Pawar my posts. Pawar looked at him and smiled and said, “You guys don’t let me do one thing I have in my mind”. Years later I came to know that the CS was just a mouthpiece but an officer from the 2009 batch who was a Collector in Marathwada was the voice behind the CS. And that ex- CS too had old grudges against me as I had written about him when he was the master of the coterie ruling Mantralaya. I haven’t named him here So, hisaab Barabar….But imagine the level these people went to deny an able officer a good posting!
– Vikrant Hemant Joshi.
