Tug of war between two senior officers

Jaipur: The post of chairman is vacant in Rajasthan State Warehousing Corporation for the last 5 months. As a result, many big and important decisions to be taken in board meetings are stuck. Agreements with NAFED and FCI and other negotiations are also not being done. This is affecting the functioning of the corporation.

It is feared that if the model code of conduct is imposed during this time, then major decisions will not be taken. The problem is that without the chairman neither board meetings can be held nor the work of the corporation can proceed.

According to sources, this has happened for the first time when there is no chairman in the corporation and the chair has been lying vacant for 5 months.

In fact, a “tug of war” is going on between Agriculture Secretary Prithviraj and the Corporation’s MD Mahaveer Prasad Meena for this chair.

Till April 2021, Pawan Kumar Goyal was the CMD of the corporation. After that, both the posts were occupied by different officers. The post of Chairman remained with the Principal Secretary of Agriculture Department and another IAS officer was appointed on the post of MD.

For the first time, a secretary-level officer (Prithviraj) was handed over the command of the Agriculture Department in May 2023 but he was not made the chairman.

Mahaveer Prasad Meena ( IAS of 2013 batch) was made MD in May but he was not made the chairman for being junior.

Now for the last 5 months it is not being decided as to who should be made the chairman. Both Prithviraj and Mahaveer Prasad Meena have staked their claims. Different lobbies are active in favor of both.

A proposal was made that the minister of the department should be entrusted with this responsibility but administratively it was not considered correct.