Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to take final call on panchayati raj department’s ‘turf war’

JAIPUR: Now, chief minister Ashok Gehlot will take a decision on the order, issued by additional chief secretary (ACS) rural development and panchayati raj department Rajeshwar Singh, which stated that all files pertaining to monitoring and implementation of central and state government-run panchayati raj schemes must be sent directly to him and not through panchayati raj department special secretary Arushi Malik.
Chief secretary D B Gupta has taken up the matter with principal secretary to the chief minister Kuldeep Ranka, said sources. Both the sides have been presented before the principal secretary, CMO, and the final decision on the issue will be taken at the level of the chief minister.
The special secretary was also asked not to hold any meeting or video conference or participate in any of the meetings/video conference-related to these schemes. According to sources, the tipping point in the matter was when a file pertaining to promotion of engineers in the rural development and panchayati raj department was sent to the finance department (FD) by the special secretary directly without the approval of the ACS. When FD sent the file back to ACS, he was literally miffed.