Thane, Feb 7: Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik on Friday made it clear that although the government has appointed IAS officer Sanjay Sethi as the chairman of the state-run bus service MSRTC, it was just a “temporary arrangement” till a public representative is given the post.
Transport Secretary Sethi, an additional chief secretary-rank officer, was named as the new chairman of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation in a gazette notification on Wednesday.
He is the first IAS officer to be appointed to this post. In the last one decade, the transport minister or some other public representative held this post. The previous chairman was Bharat Gogawale, a legislator of the ruling Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event here, Sarnaik said, “The chairmanship of the MSRTC will remain with a political person. When Eknath Shinde was the chief minister, the post was given to party MLA Bharat Gogawale. But the post became vacant as he resigned after taking over as a minister.”
“Till a new person is appointed, the charge of MSRTC’s chairmanship has been given to Sanjay Sethi, the secretary of the transport department. This is a temporary arrangement,” he said.
Sarnaik said he heads the transport ministry and MSRTC was part of it. “Ultimately, the decisions will have to be taken by me. Now, no one should politicise this issue,” he said.
A government official earlier said that Sarnaik had written to Chief Minister Fadnavis recently, requesting immediate appointment of a new chairman of the MSRTC.
The MSRTC, one of India’s largest public transport undertaking, operates a fleet of around 14,000 buses, catering to some 55 lakh passengers daily, and has a workforce of about 90,000. But it has been struggling with mounting losses, an aging fleet, employee strikes, and declining ridership in recent years. To mitigate daily financial losses, the corporation enforced a 14.95 per cent fare hike last month.
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