The Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has instructed the chief secretary to see to it that government funds are deposited only in nationalised banks and not private lenders. This was informed by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar who also happens to be the finance minister.
“The CM has instructed the chief secretary and other secretaries to deposit government funds in nationalised banks, particularly ones protected by the Centre,” Pawar said.
Pawar’s statements came in the backdrop of a controversy over the transfer of salary accounts of the police department to Axis Bank, a private lender, allegedly by the previous BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis.
Incidentally Fadnavis’s wife Amruta holds a senior post in Axis Bank.
The Bombay High Court, on Thursday, sought Fadnavis’s response to a petition questioning the transfer of salary accounts of the police department to the Axis Bank. A senior official had stated last year that salary accounts of police personnel were with the UTI Bank later renamed as Axis Bank since 2005, much before Fadnavis became the state chief minister in 2014.
