Banthia is state’s new chief secy

Mumbai: Chief minister-Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday appointed Jayant Kumar Banthia, IAS officer of 1977 batch, as the new chief secretary in place of Ratnakar Gaikwad, who retired on May 31. 

    Banthia, who was the additional chief secretary (public health), will have a tenure of exactly one year. In the zone of consideration were additional chief secretary (school education) J S Saharia and MMRDA commissioner Rahul Asthana. Apparently, state pollution control board chairman J S Sahani and additional chief secretary (general administration) Anna Dani, both belonging to the 1976 batch, were not considered as they will be retiring soon. Dani is retiring on June 30, while Sahani will retire on October 30. 

    A section of bureaucrats were expecting that Gaikwad will get an extension of three to six months, however, he had made it clear to Chavan that he was not keen. In the recent past, former municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar, former chief secretaries Prem Kumar and Johny Joseph and former DGP Ajit Parasnis were granted extension after retirement. 

    After his initial postings as chief executive officer of a zilla parishad, Banthia was appointed collector, Bhandara. After a three-year stint, he took up a central deputation post as director of census operations under the ministry of home affairs, where he was promoted as registrar general and census commissioner and held the post till May 2005. In June 2005, he was appointed the chief technical advisor with the United Nations population fund. On January 6, 2010, he returned to the state government and was appointed commissioner, family welfare. Last year, he was promoted as additional chief secretary (public health). 

    The biggest challenge before Banthia will be to convince Chavan on filling up key vacancies and shifting of 50 bureaucrats, who have completed their three-year tenure long back. 

'Focus should be on infra, rental housing' O utgoing chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad said the state needs to focus on city's infrastructure and rental housing. "Projects like metro and monorail need to be pushed. The state needs to create rental housing stock. The aim is to create five lakh houses in five years," said Gaikwad, adding that he would have liked to do much more for the city's infrastructure.— Sanjeev Shivadekar

J K Banthia with the CM