Mumbai: Minister offices now have more PAs, PSs and OSDs, reopening Mantralaya's doors to officers and staff who were sent out under an earlier order.
The change is meant to defuse discontent among ministers. Appointments made in minister offices on a borrowed basis and by oral orders had been cancelled, and all those officials were shown the way out of Mantralaya.
As many as 625 officers and staff working in minister offices on irregular appointments, without approval from the chief minister's secretariat or the chief secretary's office, were recently relieved. Those actioned included private secretaries of some ministers, special duty officers and personal assistants.
Chief secretary Rajesh Agrawal had ordered through a government circular that officials appointed by oral orders in minister offices be sent back to their parent departments before 10 September 2026. Most ministers objected, and wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking a revised staffing structure for minister establishments and more deputation posts. Fadnavis has accepted the demand.
Under a government resolution of 14 January 2025, 164 posts were sanctioned for the chief minister's secretariat, 72 for the deputy chief minister's office, and 16 and 14 for minister and minister of state offices respectively. The new order clears an additional 41 posts for the CM's secretariat, 18 for the deputy CM's office, and four each for minister and minister of state offices.
That leaves 205 posts for the CM's secretariat, 90 for the deputy CM's office, 20 for minister offices and 18 for minister of state offices. The extra posts will last for the cabinet's term. No additional manpower can be taken on a minister's establishment by borrowing or oral orders, and every post must be filled by deputation, the general administration department has said.