In a complete contrast to the erstwhile Democratic Front government in Maharashtra the current BJP-Shiv Sena government has appointed not one but eight external persons in the CMO which is costing the exchequer a sum of Rs 7,69,108 per month. This information was provided to RTI activist Anil Galgali by the state government.
Galgali had sought information from the state government about the appointments of eight external persons as OSD’s in the CMO and details about the salaries being paid to them. Initially, Galgali was provided with incomplete information prompting him to file an appeal. After the appeal, he was provided with the information of names of the persons and salaries being paid to those appointed as OSD’s in CMO. The OSD’s namely Kaustubh Dhawase is paid a monthly salary of Rs 1,30,401, Ketan Pathak 1,16,154, Ravikiran Deshmukh 1,16,154, Sumit Wankhede 88,848, Priya Khan 88,848, Nidhi Kamdar 79,731, Abhimanyu Pawar 61,072 and Shrikant Bhartiya 87,900.
Anil Galgali said, “Before this there was no precedent of appointing external persons as OSD’s in CMO, which is putting an burden of Rs 7,69,108 on the state exchequer. The state doesn’t derive any benefit out of it as the external people lack necessary experience for discharging their duties.”
