First major bureaucratic rejig: Trusted aides of Fadnavis shown the door

When Fadnavis was in power, a controversy had erupted over the allotment of a bungalow owned by the Mumbai municipality in Malabar Hill to Darade. At that time, Fadnavis had made sure that his trusted aide retains possession of the bungalow. But following his transfer to Pune on Thursday, senior officials said Darade will now have to vacate the sprawling bungalow.

Buzz in the corridors of power is also that Darade’s wife, Pallavi, a 1997-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, who has been serving in the state administration for over seven years now and is currently the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, might also be on her way out.

Some other bureaucrats who were sidelined during the Fadnavis regime have made a comeback of sorts. Jayshree Mukherjee (1986), formerly Managing Director of the Maharashtra State Textile Corporation, has been appointed as Additional Chief Secretary of the Minorities Development department. Shyam Tagade (1991), the incumbent, has been moved to the Textiles department. Dr K H Govindraj (1995), who was holding the Textile secretary’s post, has been made Additional Mumbai Metropolitan Commissioner. B Venugopal Reddy has been appointed as Principal Secretary (Forests).

Sales Tax Commissioner Rajeev Jalota (1988) has been appointed as Additional Chief Secretary (Rural Development). He has been replaced by Sanjeev Kumar, who was holding the post of Chairman and Managing Director of Mahavitran, in the Sales Tax department. Aseem Kumar Gupta (1994) has been appointed to the vacant post of Principal Secretary (Energy). Madan Nagargoje was appointed as Director, Information Technology.

Thackeray has also made changes in the posts of Divisional Commissioner in Pune and Nagpur, while also rejigging Collector’s posts in Satara, Sindhurdurg, Solapur, Raigad and Gadchiroli. With Thackeray planning a major overhaul of the bureaucracy, sources expect more transfer orders to be issued in the coming days.

In another related development, the Thackeray government has also issued orders, asking all departments to immediately cancel appointments made by the previous regime to state-run corporations.