Bowing to pressure from the employees, the Maharashtra government has transferred additional chief secretary Bhagwan Sahay from the agriculture department.
Bowing to pressure from the employees, the Maharashtra government has transferred additional chief secretary Bhagwan Sahay from the agriculture department.
Mr Sahay, an IAS officer, has been accused of high-handed attitude towards employees in his department. He had allegedly not granted a half-day leave to joint secretary (agriculture) Rajendra Ghadge, whose young son committed suicide last week. The son, who was suffering from depression, had asked Mr Ghadge to come home immediately, failing which he had threatened to commit suicide.
Taking serious note of this, the government has sent Mr Sahay on 12 days of leave from August 20 to August 31. During his leave period, the additional charge of his department was handed over to additional chief secretary (finance) D.K. Jain.
While issuing that order on August 20, the general administration (GA) department had said that Mr Sahay would resume on the same post once his leave was over.
However, on Sunday the GA issued another circular saying that the order issued on Saturday has been revoked. “During Mr Sahay’s leave period and till next orders are issued, the additional charge of agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries has been handed over to D.K. Jain,” it said.
The employees of agriculture department in Mantralaya had demanded the transfer of Mr Sahay. The class-IV agriculture department employees association has also threatened to go on a strike outside the office of the commissioner of agriculture, Pune, from September 7.
Meanwhile, the state government has decided to expedite the inquiry against Mr Sahay. Agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar said that the government had initially planned to wait until Mr Ghadge returned to the city but has now decided to send a team of officials to his native village and record his statement.
“The agriculture joint secretary may even take a month before he returns to work. But we cannot keep the investigation against Mr Sahay on hold till then. We have thus decided to send a team to his native village and record his statement,” Mr Fundkar said.
