Fadnavis forms 3-member ministerial panel to take decisions in

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is on a week-long foreign tour, has set up a three-member ministerial committee to take decisions in case of any emergency in his absence.

The committee has been assigned powers to take decisions during an emergency situation when the chief minister is out of the country on an official tour, said an order issued by the General Administration Department of the state government.

The order comes at a time when Fadnavis is on a tour of the US and Canada.

The committee members are Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, Minister for Finance and Planning Sudhir Mungantiwar, and minister for Water Resources Girish Mahajan.

Mungantiwar said the committee has been formed so that the bureaucrats consider the decisions taken by it as those of the chief minister.

"There needed to be a mechanism in place to make urgent interventions and take immediate decisions when the chief minister is not around. Hence, the panel was formed," Mungantiwar told PTI.

Citing an example, he said recently farmers had gone on a strike in the state which needed immediate intervention.

There could be other such incidents which require immediate attention from the government, the minister said.

"To mitigate loss of time in the absence of the chief minister, the decisions taken by this committee will be considered final," Mungantiwar said.