Ministers and the battle for inches at Mantralaya

A race for space is underway at the state secretariat as ministers' administrative staff numbers balloon. As cabins and corridors are sliced and diced, who's taken the fall and who's kept their turf?

- Saurabha Kulshreshtha

MUMBAI: The state Public Works Department (PWD) is doing the kind of math that never quite adds up. At Mantralaya, or the state secretariat, where space equals ego; multiplied by one more deputy chief minister, plus their entourage of 164; plus 13 ministers and 240 administrative staff—how do you fit them all in without starting a turf war?

While the PWD attempts spatial gymnastics, the ministers' staff is performing their own version of acrobatics. Carpenters, slicing and dicing cabins and corridors to pull new space out of thin air, have even shrunk a few cabins from 120sq ft to a miniscule 36sq ft, to make way for more cabins.

So what gives?

The six-storey secretariat at Nariman Point, where the offices of the chief minister, deputy chief ministers and council of ministers is located, was built in 1955. Apart from the ministers and their massive administrative staff numbers, Mantralaya has a staff strength of around 3,000. This includes the bureaucracy and government officers, who handle the administrative work of the government, clerical staff and others.

So why is the secretariat struggling to cope with the numbers? The council of ministers has grown since the previous Mahayuti government, and, for the first time, Maharashtra has not one but two deputy chief ministers. The space occupied by their massive staff is causing a stir in the corridors of power.