Highlights
- Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar issued a directive for officials.
- He asked them to start telephonic conversations with "Vande Mataram" instead of "Hello".
- Mungantiwar recently assumed the post of Cultural Affairs Minister in the Maharashtra cabinet.
Independence Day 2022: On the eve of Independence Day on Sunday (August 14), newly-appointed Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar directed all officials of the state government to start telephonic conversations with "Vande Mataram" instead of greeting a phone call with a 'hello".
Taking to Twitter, he said, "Today immediately after announcements on portfolio distribution, as a Cultural Affairs Minister, my first appeal to each and every citizen and government office employee is, to use " Vande Mataram" to start a conversation instead of "Hello".
Mungantiwar further said it is necessary to abandon this foreign word (hello) while adding that Vande Mataram is not just a word but it is the feeling of every Indian.
Mungantiwar recently assumed the post of Cultural Affairs Minister in the Maharashtra cabinet after the expansion took place last Tuesday. Maharashtra recently saw political turbulence and 18 ministers took oath, after the western state's Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday announced the allocation of portfolios.
Shinde will look after general administration, urban development, Information and Public Relations, Public Works Department and several other major portfolios not allocated to other ministers. Fadnavis will hold the portfolios of Home, Finance and Planning, Law and Justice, Water Resources and Command Area Development, Housing, Energy, and Protocol.
Senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil was allotted higher and technical education, textile industry and parliamentary work while Ravindra Chavhan was assigned Ministry of Public Works (excluding Public Enterprises), Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection.
Other major departments that were allocated to BJP leaders included Girish Mahajan as chief of Village Development and Panchayati Raj development, Medical Education, Sports and Youth Welfare. The leaders from Shiv Sena allocated portfolios include Dada Bhuse, Shambhuraje Desai, Sandeepan Bhumre, Uday Samant, Tanaji Sawant, Abdul Sattar, Deepak Kesarkar, Gulabrao Patil and Sanjay Rathod.
(With ANI inputs)
