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June 11, 1999
COLUMNISTS
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The Rediff Interview/ Arun Bhatia'It is a mafia operation where people are afraid to speak out'
Once again you find yourself in the thick of controversy? Did you expect this harsh removal from your post yet again? Yes, I was expecting this removal. My attempt was to clean up the Pune municipal corporation. Whatever work I was doing towards this was affecting the party representatives in the corporation. As you know, it is politicians who are most often involved in all sorts of illegal activities. Suresh Kalmadi had suffered. I had cleared up a lot of area with illegal structures belonging to him. Sharad Pawar's relative had evaded tax amounting to Rs 2.6 million. Most of such activities are carried out in connivance with the corporation, so party by party -- the leaders went against me. The PMC members have accused you of being dictatorial in your manner of functioning. Regardless of anything, this clean-up that I was working at wasn't well accepted by the members. The PMC is a vulnerable body. Even if leaders are not involved, the members treat the PMC as a cake -- and all of them want a piece. What has taken many by surprise is the fact that unlike last time, when the corporators had supported you when you were removed as Pune municipal commissioner, they unanimously voted against you this time. Why? It was evident that because I was encroaching upon their illegal activities, all parties rallied against me. The few that do support me are too scared. It is a mafia operation where people are afraid to speak out. It is incorrect to say that this kind of a mafia operation cannot take place here, that these kind of things only happen in Bihar. If they happen in Bihar, they also happen here. In your opinion, why has the PMC become infested with such corruption? Unlike other government bodies, the officers in the PMC are not transferrable. Every government servant gets transferred in three years. This is a safeguard so that the officer does not develop vested interest in a particular department or a place. But the PMC is a local body, it is not part of a government structure. It has officers who haven't been transferred in 30 years! This is the main cause of the problem. The top post there has had the same officer for 10 years now. The corporation needs to be integrated with the rest of the government organisational structure. The officers should at least be transferred to other corporations, maybe to Sangli, Solapur etc. Did you think that things might come to a stage where you would find yourself impeached?
Before I took office, in 1997-1998, only 42 per cent of the PMC budget was utilised. In 1998-1999, only 38 per cent was used -- so what development are they talking about when they haven't even used the money allotted to the PMC earlier? They only want certain things that suit them politically. After being transferred over 23 times, you have been impeached and now sent to the department of archives. Have you been further disillusioned? This is an old story. Yet another episode. Yes, it is upsetting. Also annoying. Photograph: Jewella C Miranda for rediff.com EARLIER REPORT:
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Transferred 24 times in his 32 year career, IAS officer Arun Bhatia has been impeached from the Pune municipal corporation and sent to the state department of archives. The 56-year-old officer believes his encroachment on the illegal activities, often done in connivance with corporators, paved the way for his unceremonious exit. Due to join his new posting in Bombay in a few days, he spoke to Archana Masih over the phone from Pune:
They had to get rid of me. They couldn't get this through the government, so all parties forgot their differences and joined in voting me out. I think it has been more high-handed this time. They say I was threatening, dictatorial, I wasn't doing any developmental work -- all those statistics are wrong.