State protocol secy served show-cause notice

State protocol secretary Sumit Mullick is trouble due to his department’s inept show at last Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and 10 other ministers.

State protocol secretary Sumit Mullick is trouble due to his department’s inept show at last Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and 10 other ministers.

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The State Legislature served a show cause notice on Mullick on Monday, asking him to explain why chairman of the Legislative Council Shivajirao Deshmukh and other VIPs were subjected to humiliating treatment at the ceremony. Deshmukh and other VIPs were forced to walk a long distance to reach the Darbar Hall in Raj Bhavan where Governor K Sankaranarayanan administered the oath of office on the new ministers.

State protocol department supervises all arrangements for the swearing-in. It issues invitations to guests and it is expected to make the VIPs comfortable.

A VIP, who had to go through humiliating treatment, said that assembly speaker Dilip Walse-Patil was also asked to disembark from his official vehicle. “But, Walse-Patil was lucky to get himself dropped in a police vehicle to the venue.”

“Jayant Patil (ex-rural development minister) requested a biker (policeman) for a lift. But Deshmukh, who is not keeping good health, was forced to walk almost a kilometer.”

Deshmukh summoned Mullick to his office last week and as the senior bureaucrat’s verbal explanations did not satisfy him, he asked principal secretary (state legislature), Anant Kalse, to serve a shoe cause notice on Mullick.

Mullick could not be reached for comments.