56,371 files stuck in Mantralaya red tape

A written reply by Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan to State Council reveals most of the files pending for approval are under departments headed by him and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar

One often hears complaints about red-tapism present in bureaucracy and the long delays in decision-making. However, yesterday this fact came amply to light when it was revealed that 56,371 files were pending at Mantralaya.



In a written reply to a question asked by Peasants and Workers Party's Jayant Patil and Lok Bharati party member Kapil Patil, Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan accepted that there were 56,371 files pending at Mantralaya as of October 2010.

Of the total numbers, 32,384 files pending were from the year 2010 alone, 1,734 files were from the year 2009 and 2,626 were from 2008.

Delayed process
Explaining the delay, the CM said that files were pending for want of additional information from allied offices of the concerned department, and also remarks and approval from the Finance and Planning Department and the General Administrationu00a0 Department (GAD), which the CM himself while Deputy CM Ajit Pawar heads the Finance and Planning department.

Chavan, elaborating further about the delays in the approvals said that many were deferred owing to administrative reasons whereas in others he said approvals from the central government were pending.

Marathi neglected
On the other hand, even though Marathi has been the state's official language, the decision to allot space for the Marathi Language Department has also been delayed.

In a written reply to the State Council, Chavan said that the required space for the office of the newly carved out Marathi Language Department was allotted in May this year even though the decision to have a special department for the development of the language was taken in July 2010.

The new Marathi Language Department will be on the eighth floor at the New Administrative Building situated opposite Mantralaya.

32,384
No of files pending from 2010