Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Airports development chief R C Sinha told to quit -MumbaiMirror Reports

Airports development chief told to quit

IAS officer R C Sinha who quit 15 days ago, however, claims he resigned due to personal reasons

By Yogesh Naik
Posted On Thursday, February 03, 2011
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/20110203201102030348097475af25243/Airports-development-chief-told-to-quit.html#ftr2

Sinha, a IAS officer of 1962 batch,is the architect of the 55 flyovers in the state. Chavan was unhappy with Sinha's performance in the airport development body and his alleged role in the Satyam group. Sources said Chavan was upset at the slow pace of things in the international cargo hub (MIHAN project).

‘I have Resigned’

Sinha, however, told Mumbai Mirror that he had quit.

“I have resigned due to personal reasons; I have some commitments. I was never told to resign,” he said.

Sinha quit on January 14. The following day, state civil aviation secretary Nandkumar Jantre was been told to hold charge till a new appointment is done.

R C Sinha
Highly placed sources in Mantralaya said that last year, the Union civil aviation secretary had demanded Sinha's removal. The department was very unhappy that the MIHAN project besides many other greenfield airports were not shaping up well.

The request was put up before then chief minister Ashok Chavan who wanted to verify if then civil aviation minister Praful Patel agreed with the secretary's views.

Though Patel echoed the view, the proposal to remove Sinha was put on backburner, sources said.

A senior state official said that after taking over, Prithviraj Chavan reviewed the MIHAN project and expressed displeasure.. A message was then conveyed to Sinha to step down.

Officials in the state government said that the MIHAN project had drawn flak criticised during the State Legislative Assembly’s winter session held at Nagpur which made the government to ask Sinha to step down.

Sinha had retired from the IAS in 1996 and was handpicked by the then PWD minister Nitin Gadkari for construction of 55 flyovers in Mumbai.

Copyright 2008 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. . All rights reserved.

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