Around 150 officers and employees deputed to ministers in Maharashtra are still working in Mantralaya a month after Chief Secretary Rajesh Agarwal ordered that such personnel be sent back to their parent departments, according to information cited by Loksatta. The report has brought renewed attention to the use of oral orders and deputation arrangements to staff ministerial offices beyond their formally sanctioned strength.
Agarwal issued the order on 25 August to cancel appointments made on deputation or through oral instructions in ministerial establishments and return the personnel to their original departments. Of the 620 officers and employees working with different ministers under such arrangements, nearly 150 are reportedly still in place, sources told Loksatta.
The continuing presence of these personnel has exposed a gap between the state administration’s formal staffing rules and the way ministerial offices operate in practice. While several ministers are reported to have reduced their additional staff after the order, some offices have sought to retain employees by asking that them be adjusted against vacant sanctioned posts.
Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s office has 72 sanctioned posts, of which 18 are vacant, according to the report. The office is also reported to have 30 additional employees working on deputation. Loksatta reported that the office had not agreed to release any of them and had instead sought their adjustment against the vacant posts.
The proposed adjustment will not automatically apply to every employee. Personnel who meet the applicable policy conditions are expected to be considered for placement against vacant positions, while those who do not qualify will have to return to their parent departments. The distinction is significant because a sanctioned vacancy does not by itself establish that every deputed employee can be retained in that position.
The staffing pattern also varies sharply between ministerial offices. The office of Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar was reported to have only two additional employees. In contrast, the office of Health Minister Prakash Abitkar had 70 officers and employees working on deputation even though 16 posts had been sanctioned for it. Those personnel have reportedly been sent back.
The issue goes beyond the number of employees attached to individual ministers. Deputation arrangements can affect the availability of staff in parent departments, blur accountability for administrative work and make it difficult to determine whether ministerial offices are operating within approved staffing structures. The chief secretary’s order was intended to address appointments made outside the regular process, but the reported continuation of nearly 150 personnel indicates that implementation remains incomplete.
The next step will be to examine which employees can be adjusted against vacant sanctioned posts under the applicable policy and which must return to their parent departments. The reported review will determine how far the August order is implemented across the remaining ministerial offices.
