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Pune district still awaits new collector, five days after Ram’s transfer order
The Centre on August 4 issued transfer orders for Ram to join the Prime Minister’s Office as deputy secretary.
The state government has not taken a call on the appointment of a new district collector for Pune, which is one of the worst-affected by Covid-19 pandemic, even five days after the transfer order of outgoing district collector Naval Kishore Ram came in.
The Centre on August 4 issued transfer orders for Ram to join the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as deputy secretary, leaving his post vacant. While Ram has stopped coming to office after deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar felicitated him on Friday, the administration is awaiting a new collector. Ram, a 2008-batch IAS officer, was appointed the district collector in April 2018.
According to senior officials in the Maharashtra government, the announcement of the new collector is likely to be made in two days.
Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao said that the appointment of the new collector will be made this week.
“The deputy chief minister is well aware of the situation and he has clearly said that by Monday or Tuesday, the new collector will be appointed in Pune,” said Rao, who has also served as Pune district collector for over three years.
Among those being considered for the post are Dr Rajesh Deshmukh, managing director at Haffkine and Yogesh Mhase, chief executive officer of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada). Mhase was recently transferred to Mhada from the Maharashtra State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited where he was the managing director.
Other names being considered for the post are Rubal Agarwal, additional commissioner at Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC); Suhas Diwase, Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) commissioner and G Shreekant, district collector of Latur.
For the new district collector in Pune, one of the biggest challenges will be to rein in the rising Covid cases in the rural areas, which has started witnessing a spike in positives, especially after the lockdown was lifted. As of August 9, Pune’s rural areas recorded 8,183 positive cases and 209 deaths.