CBI probe mars Maharashtra chief secretary's chances for extension

The Central Bureau of Investigation effectively torpedoed Maharashtra Chief Secretary Dinesh Afzalpurkar's hopes for an extension of tenure, when its finger pointed against him in the controversial Brihanmumbai Port Trust land sale case.

On Friday evening, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi turned thumbs down to Afzalpurkar's hopes of a third extension of tenure in the top bureaucratic post in the state.

Afzalpurkar, during an earlier stint as chairman of the BPT, is alleged to have sold for a song a piece of land under his jurisdiction to Kiran Chaudhary, daughter-in-law of Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal and office-bearer of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. The allegation thus is that by showing undue favours to Choudhary, who was close to then minister of state for surface transport Jagdish Tytler, Afzalpurkar has entailed losses for the BPT.

Ironically, Manohar Joshi had on August 27 met Prime Minister I K Gujral and discussed, among other matters, the possibility of extending Afzalpurkar's tenure.

At the time, Joshi had indicated to Gujral the possibility that Afzalpurkar's name could figure in the CBI investigations, and promised that in such an event, the state government would not put pressure on the Centre to extend the bureaucrat's term.

On Friday, Joshi again consulted Gujral and on being reportedly told by the latter that the CBI had in fact fingered Afzalpurkar, promptly withdrew the state government's request for an extension of the chief secretary's tenure.

Afzalpurkar's tenure ends on August 31.

A successor, thus, will need to be identified almost immediately, and word is that V Ranganathan is the most likely choice. Another name being considered by Joshi is that of P Subramaniam, who currently holds the post of additional chief secretary (home).

Compiled by Prasanna D Zore from the Marathi media