Cabinet expansion will happen sooner than you think: Maha Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis
India Today
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in a response to the Opposition, said, "The cabinet expansion will happen sooner than you think.”
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday responded to the Opposition’s criticism towards the government for handing over ministerial powers to bureaucrats. He said, “The cabinet expansion will happen sooner than you think.”
He added that the Supreme Court’s pending decision on the suspension of ministers has “nothing to do with cabinet expansion”. “The Supreme Court has not said anywhere that the cabinet cannot be expanded,” he said.
He also slammed Opposition leader Ajit Pawar and said, “He has no option but to criticise. However, he must have forgotten that in his time there were only five ministers for 32 days.”
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Fadnavis said that quasi-judicial powers have been given to the authorities in the past too and it is a tradition not just in the state but in the country. “The Chief Minister belongs to the people and I am in his cabinet. We are always available for the people of this state,” he added.
Maharashtra's Chief Secretary Manukumar Shrivastava had issued an order on August 4, with the directives of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to entrust quasi-judicial powers of cabinet ministers and ministers of state to the secretaries in the state administration until further notice.
In the order, the chief secretary has stated that quasi-judicial authority to conduct appeals, revisions and review applications along with giving interim orders on pending cases and disposing of cases by holding urgent hearings in important time-bound cases have been conferred to additional secretary, principal secretary and secretaries of concerned departments till further orders from the chief minister.
