India Today: Mumbai: Sunday, August 20, 2017.
While there
exists a detailed government record (GR) detailing the programmes that can be
hosted at the Maharashtra Government's Guest House, instances of misuse of this
provision have surfaced.
The IAS Wives
Association headed by Tanuja Mallik, wife of Chief Secretary Sumit Mallik, held
a cooking competition at the Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai. According to
information provided by the Maharashtra government to RTI activist Anil
Galgali, it seems that the Protocol Department has bent rules to concede to the
demands made by IAS officers' wives.
RTI activist
Anil Galgali had sought information from the government regarding the rules and
regulations to be followed for using the state-owned Sahyadri Guest House and
also details of the programme conducted there in the past three years. The
GAD's Protocol Department provided Galgali with the details of the usage in the
past 6 months.
During the
period from March 1, 2017 to July 17, 2017, the guest house was reserved for
139 occasions and a revenue of Rs 28,83,197 generated as rental charges. In
these 6 months, the IAS Wives Association reserved the guest house 4 times and
a rent of Rs 6,150 was charged from them. On March 9, the guest house was
reserved for the occasion of the handover of the presidentship from Mrs.
Kshatriya to Mrs. Mallik. On July 8, 2017, the same guest house was reserved
for holding the cooking competition.
On June 14,
BJP MLA Raj Purohit had reserved the Guest House, while Joint Secretary Lata
Nandkumar reserved the same on June 22 without mentioning the purpose of the
same on telephonic instructions from Deputy Secretary Bhoge. According to the
government record dated July 24, 2015, the Sahyadri Guest House can be reserved
for meeting, workshops and press conferences headed by either the chief
minister, deputy chief minister, ministers of state, chief secretary,
additional chief secretary, principal secretary, secretary or an officer of
similar status. Despite the GR clearly listing names of those who qualified for
reserving their place, the reservations were made for the IAS Officers' Wives
Association, violating the rules of allotment.
In a letter
addressed to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, activist Galgali has demanded
that action be initiated against officers who cooperated in violating the norms
and that commercial rent charges must be recovered from the IAS Officers' Wives
Association and MLA Raj Purohit. And such rules should be made in the future
that rent be charged according to the type of programme being booked so that
the government could generate additional revenue for using of the Sahyadri
Guest House.
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