Mumbai: After his earlier proposal to attend a training course in Australia was turned down by the BEST committee, general manager Surendrakumar Bagde has now sought permission to take a leadership course at Harvard University in the U.S.A.
The short term course, ‘Leadership decision making; optimizing organizational performance’ is offered by the JFK School at Harvard from February 4 to February 9 and has been recommended and sponsored by the Central government’s Department of Personnel and Training.
Earlier, the BEST committee had shot down a proposed visit by Mr. Bagde to Australia for a training course, citing the transport utility’s dire financial condition. The committee had instead recommended that a BEST officer be sent to take the Harvard course as he could better utilise the training for the organisation’s benefit.
This time around, though, the committee apparently has no objection to Mr. Bagde’s trip, probably because the BMC has taken charge of BEST.
BJP leader Shrikant Kawtankar said, “Yes, the Harvard trip proposal should come up for hearing at the February 1 BEST committee meeting, and will be passed smoothly. Since it is training that IAS officers attend regularly, we won’t oppose it.”
Shiv Sena’s Suhas Samant also said they have never stopped officers from going on official trips for gaining knowledge in 17 years.
