Housing minister Prakash Mehta ousted from raigad guardianship

Mumbai: Housing minister Prakash Mehta has been removed from the guardian ministership of the Raigad district and minister of state for food and civil supply Ravindra Chavan has been appointed as the new guardian minister Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had recently changed the guardian ministers of a few districts, but the responsibility of Raigad had stayed with Mr Mehta. However, in a sudden move, Mr Fadnavis spoke to him on Tuesday and orders were issued to make Mr Chavan the guardian minister of the district. 

There have been many complaints against Mr Mehta on how he was not giving sufficient time and attention to the district. In the last two years, the situation in the area during the monsoon season was very bad. However, Mr Mehta had failed to fix it. 

He had also been involved in a controversy during the Mahad bridge collapse due to the remarks made by him. 

The Lokayukta is even conducting an enquiry into the allegations against him for favouring a builder in an SRA project. It is likely that Mr Fadnavis made his decision because of these reasons. 

Sources close to Mr Mehta have refuted all allegations, stating that he had been requesting Mr Fadnavis to withdraw the responsibilities since a long time.