Speaker Nana Patole warns of action against CS

MUMBAI: On Monday, Nana Patole, Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly, lost his temper over the callous attitude shown by the administration and bureaucrats over the queries raised by legislators in the house. 

Patole summoned Chief Secretary (CS) Ajoy Mehta and asked him to apologise for not responding to the queries. Patole told Mehta that a breach privilege motion will be moved against him. 

Later, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar apologised on behalf of the chief secretary and requested to withdraw the action against Mehta.

After requests from all party leaders and an apology from the deputy chief minister on behalf of the administration, Patole withdrew the order and the chief secretary escaped from the breach of privilege motion. 

In the last session of the Legislative Assembly, there were 83 motion of propriety raised, out of which, only four have been responded to by the administration.

As per rule, the point of proprieties have to be responded to within a month of it being raised in the house. But the administration was not serious. The administration of the legislature was waiting for the reply from the administration and even the speaker had alerted the chief secretary about the same. Yet, the administration failed to respond. 

Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said that the punishment is too harsh. “Never before a chief secretary has been punished. As the deputy chief minister, I will take the responsibility that this will not happen again in the future.”

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis said that since the deputy chief minister has apologised, the issue should be laid to rest. “Though the sentiments of the speaker of the house are legitimate, the person should also be given a fair chance to clear his stand,” he said. The speaker said that he will not tolerate this attitude and will hold the chief secretary responsible for the delays and ill-treatment of legislators. “Many bureaucrats are not giving respect to the legislators and it should not happen again,” he said.