Pankaja Munde, the Women and Child Welfare Minister in Maharashtra government, tops the list of ministers who remaining absent from state cabinet meetings, a RTI query has revealed.
Not too behind are PWD minister Eknath Shinde, Health Minister Deepak Sawant, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Social Welfare minister Rajkumar Badole.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Water Supply Minister Babanrao Lonikar are the only two, who have attended all cabinet meetings.
A PTI report quoting the RTI activist Anil Galgali, who filed the original request seeking details of the total number of cabinet meetings held by the state government and the attendance of ministers, said that since December 11, 2014 to June 23, 2015 a total of 28 cabinet meetings were held.
Munde remained absent in 9 out of the 28 cabinet meetings. Galgali also asked if any advisory was given by Fadnavis to curb the absenteeism. But the response was in negative with the concerned officer denying having any record of such information.
The Mumbai-based RTI activist was also informed that there was no rule to ssack those ministers who had repeatedly skipping the cabinet meetings.
Munde was recently facing serious corruption charges after reports suggested that she had violated several norms by awarding contracts at a cost of Rs 206 crore.
