Amid delay in Maharashtra Cabinet expansion, Eknath Shinde gives special powers to bureaucrats; faces Opposition's ire

As the scheduled Cabinet expansion in Maharashtra remains awaited, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has granted quasi-judicial powers to bureaucrats. The move has drawn opposition’s ire with Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, Congress legislature party leader Balasaheb Thorat and Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe saying that the CM’s decision is anti-democratic. 

“We are facing this situation asEknath Shinde failed to expand his cabinet more than a month after he was sworn in as CM. Instead of bureaucrats, I fell all powers should be entrusted to the chief secretary. We are in a democratic setup. Legislators have no powers and there are no Cabinet members either. Under such circumstances, bureaucrats have become more powerful than elected representatives,” Pawar was quoted by Times of India as saying. 

Amid criticism from the opposition, Shinde said no ministerial-level powers have been given to the secretaries except in quasi-judicial matters.

“All the powers are vested with the Minister, Chief Minister and Council of Ministers as before. It is completely wrong to say that all the decision-making process has been handed over to the secretaries,” Shinde said. 

As per the August 4 order, certain powers of ministers have been conferred on the secretaries, but these are only for the filing and hearing of quasi-judicial cases, he said.   

As Shinde called in sick last week, CM and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis maintained a low-profile, with neither of them holding meetings with cabinet hopefuls and other MLAs. 

More than 35 days have passed after Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took the oath of office but cabinet is yet to be expanded. However as per sources, Shinde and Fadnavis are already in the capital and may discuss cabinet expansion with the bigwigs of the BJP.

It is being said that list of ministers has been made and approval of BJP high command has to be taken for allotting departments.

Deepak Kesarkar, spokesperson of the Sena’s Shinde camp, had earlier said that cabinet expansion could be held before Sunday. Sources within the government had hinted that the possible date for expansion of the state cabinet was August 5, almost 35 days after both Shinde and Fadnavis were sworn in.