Fadnavis plans to revamp CMO for greater efficiency

Says strengthening of Chief Minister's Office will remove bottlenecks, help ministers

Newly-appointed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis plans to develop his office on the lines of the PMO to ensure faster and efficient working of his administration.

"I am in the process of developing the office of Chief Minister on the lines of the Prime Minister's Office where a set of select bureaucrats assist the ministers in case they are not able to carry out certain tasks," Fadnavis told reporters here today, a day after being sworn-in as the state's first BJP Chief Minister.

The strengthening of Chief Minister's Office (CMO) will remove the bottlenecks and pendency of work would be reduced when bureaucrats enter the scene to help ministers, he said.

On the demand for abolition of local body tax (LBT), Fadnavis said he was contemplating introduction of turnover tax on VAT.

Notably, the BJP had promised to do away with LBT during its poll campaign.

On the issue of toll tax, the Chief Minister said he had thought of some alternatives. Since toll tax needs to be collected from the users, there should be transparency (in the system), he said.

On having a separate official machinery to look after issues of Vidarbha, Fadnavis, the MLA from Nagpur South West seat, felt that the previous system, when former Chief Secretary Arun Bongirwar was appointed and used to sit in Nagpur to look after the issues related to region, did not work.

"We want to further streamline the system and fix our priorities and decide accordingly," he said.

Fadnavis will be proceeding to his home town Nagpur tomorrow where he will be accorded a grand welcome post his swearing-in as the CM.

He will hold a series of meetings with officials and elected representatives in Nagpur on Monday.