MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray issued an order on Tuesday stating that he will be the final authority to take any decision and those decisions of his cannot be changed at the local level.
After facing criticism over decisions taken by different authorities in the state that created confusion among the people, the government has come up with this order.
According to the notification issued by the state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta, henceforth the district collector and municipal commissioners cannot change the decision taken by the state government without permission from the state chief secretary.
Earlier there was lots of confusion over the state orders as the local authorities overruled the state orders under epidemic diseases act 1897.
“State chief secretary recently ordered to allow the stand-alone shops to function as part of easing the lockdown but many district collectors used their power and refused to implement it. In Pune, collectors allowed people to work in industries, but the police department did not give travel permits for those who wanted to go for work. That created a lot of chaos and confusion. Therefore, to streamline and have clarity in government, this decision was taken,” said a senior government official.
Senior Congress leader read this order differently. He said that this is not empowering the chief minister but giving extra powers to the state chief secretary.
"Why is there a requirement of permission from chief state secretary to do anything? The district collectors are local authorities who can understand the situation better way, so they should be allowed some of the normal decisions. If there is a policy decision, then they can seek the state chief secretary permission," he said adding that by taking this decision chief secretary will be super chief minister of Maharashtra.
Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis also met governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari complaining that the Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray had failed to control the situations.
“The COVID 19 positive cases and deaths are on the rise in Maharashtra. As the leader, he has lost control and putting his failure blame to administrative officers that are very unfortunate,” Ashish Shelar, senior BJP leader said.