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Growing confrontation between politicians and civic officials
Tensions rise in Pune district as politicians and bureaucrats clash over corruption allegations and harassment accusations, leading to suspensions and calls for investigations.
In the past week, politicians and bureaucrats have been at loggerheads on different issues in Pune district, an indication of growing fears of tension between the two.
In the first case, after the public health department suspended Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health chief Bhagwan Pawar, he accused health minister Tanaji Sawant of acting against him for not being part of the latter’s corruption.
He wrote a letter to the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and both the Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and accused Sawant of indulging in corruption.
While Sawant did not respond to allegations, the public health department issued a release stating that Pawar was suspended after the inquiry into past cases against him citing financial irregularities as well as sexual and mental abuse of female colleagues during his tenure in the Pune and Satara districts as a district health officer.
In the second case, Khed sub-divisional officer (SDO) Jogendra Katyare accused Pune district collector Suhas Diwase and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Dilip Mohite Patil of harassment.
Katyare has also accused Mohite-Patil of forcing him to engage in illegal work.
Mohite-Patil has refuted all allegations and said, “There are many complaints about the officer (Katyare). He had carried out land acquisition for the Pune Ring Road in Khed taluka. There are complaints regarding compensation issued for the land. I demand a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into all the cases handled by this officer.”
Diwase also refuted allegations saying, Katyare himself is facing inquiry in some cases in land acquisition cases.
Reacting to the incident, deputy chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday said it is wrong to blame elected members without proper investigation.
“If there are allegations, then officials should face an inquiry and there is no need to worry if they are not guilty. But these days it has become a common thing that if someone blames elected members, the media also considers it as truth,” he said.
In the third case, the state government suspended two doctors and a staffer of state-run Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) in connection with the alleged manipulation of blood samples of the minor driver involved in the Porsche car crash at Kalyaninagar on Monday 19. Also, Dr Vinayak Kale, dean BJ Medical College (BJMC) and SGH, was sent on compulsory leave for not handling the issue appropriately.
Kale pointed out that Dr Taware was instated as medical superintendent based on a recommendation letter from medical education minister Hasan Mushrif.
Vivek Velankar, civic activist, said, “We used to blame political leaders for corruption, but civic officials are not clean. As there are no elected members, corruption is on the rise. This could be the reason for the conflict between the two.”
Another activist Vijay Kumbhar also pointed out corruption in the system and said, “Political leaders and civic officials are involved in illegal practices which is leading to this conflict.”
