RTI blows the lid off OSD appointments in Mhada

Mumbai: In a development raising grave concerns over transparency and governance, 23 retired officials have been appointed as officers on special duty (OSDs) in Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) offices by allegedly circumventing merit-based recruitment practices.
Of these 23 OSDs, 10 have been assigned to Mhada's repair board, a vital department responsible for maintaining the city's ageing and dilapidated buildings, showed documents obtained through an RTI query by activist Jeetendra Ghadge.
These appointments allegedly contradict the original purpose of a 2016 govt circular, which sanctions recruitment of retired officials as OSDs on a contractual basis for their specialised expertise, as they are being scrutinised as extending post-retirement employment to select persons. The RTI information showed that several of these appointments and extensions were influenced by netas like Rahul Shewale, Sunil Rane, Prasad Lad, Mangesh Kudalkar, and Ramdas Athawale.
In one such alleged misuse of authority, Nitin Gorde, who held key positions in Mhada's residential engineering department for several years, got reappointed as OSD post-retirement on Nov 15, 2021. The fact that his three-year tenure concluded on Sept 14, 2024, was deliberately withheld from housing minister Atul Save, as per the documents obtained under the RTI Act.
The handwritten note on the final page of his appointment order explicitly stating "three years completed" was suppressed. Further, Lad wrote to Save on Sept 10, 2024, recommending a two-year extension for Gorde. The letter contained inaccurate information, claiming Gorde's appointment as OSD began on Aug 30, 2023, as per the copy of order received under the RTI. Act
The 2016 GR explicitly restricts contractual appointments to a maximum of three years.
In 2023, MLA Kailas Gorantyal brought attention to allegations of corruption in the redevelopment of Lokmanya Nagar Priyadarshini Housing Society in Dadar during a legislative session. The accusations were directed towards Gorde. However, after an internal investigation, Mhada officials submitted a report absolving Gorde of all charges. Although this clean chit fact has been mentioned in his extension proposal, the fact that he had completed three years was mentioned by a handwritten note after the minister had already signed the order.
"This blatant misuse of political influence is a severe injustice to young aspirants striving for govt jobs...retired officials continue to exploit the system to retain power, eroding public trust in the administration...Some of these officers have even faced corruption allegations during their service...," claimed Ghadge of the Young Whistle-Blowers Foundation.
The RTI query also showed that in 2020, Vinod Ghosalkar, then-chairman of Mhada, acknowledged receiving as many as 93 applications for these OSD positions. This has raised further questions about the selection process and the criteria used to appoint candidates.
Ghadge has called for a "thorough and impartial investigation" into Gorde's OSD extension.