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Honest Injun

Archana Masih in Pune. Photographs by Jewella C Miranda.

If I am not re-instated, I will go on leave for some time," says Arun Bhatia, who was removed as Pune's municipal commissioner six-and-a half days after he assumed office on March 6, 1999 -- his second transfer in rapid succession.

Bhatia, an IAS officer of 1967 vintage, was earlier transferred as Pune's divisional commissioner after his public spat with Maharashtra Chief Secretary P Subrahmanyam over the state government's slackness in rehabilitating the families of Project Affected Persons of the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Irrigation project and the corruption in the state irrigation department.

The project proposed to irrigate 500,000 hectares of land, includes a maximum of 70 smaller projects and covers the six districts of Kolhapur, Pune, Sangli, Satara and Solapur. Pointing to a graph, indicating the rapid progress made on the project under his tenure, Bhatia says work had been stopped on five sub-projects, if not more, after his transfer.

"Now it is being projected as a turf problem between the chief secretary and me, and the real issue, the rehabilitation of the families at the submergence level, is being forgotten," says the 56-year-old civil servant who expects to be notified of his next posting, or reinstatement, in a day or two.

Bhatia's record of transfers in the bureaucracy -- 23 in 32 years -- reveals his stormy equation with the government. Even his last promotion, he says, came about after he approached the court.

With a chequered service history behind him -- as Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Bombay, he closed down Glaxo for 10 days as punishment for improper recycling of drugs; as collector of Dhule, he exposed the multi-million rupee corruption in the Employment Guarantee Scheme; as Bombay collector he unearthed violations in building rules -- it took Pune by little surprise when Bhatia ordered the demolition of illegal construction in the city.

"Bhatia was doing his job -- after all, builders are getting away with all kinds of irregularities. There is no dhanda as lucrative as theirs, it has so many loopholes that one-time scrap-dealers now own buildings and race horses," says Gita Vir, president, National Society for Clean Cities.

One of the 95 Pune-based organisations participating in a citizen's movement against Bhatia's transfer, she says there was little doubt the civil servant would be transferred since several corporators and politicians were part of the thriving 'builders business' in the city. "Basically, the government didn't want to get embarrassed further because all the worms had started coming out of the woodwork," continues Vir, having just returned from a hunger strike in Bhatia's support at the Poona Club.

Among others, Bhatia had ordered the partial demolition of property owned by former chief minister Manohar Joshi's son-in-law Girish Vyas, Pune Vikas Aghadi leader and Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Kalmadi and the five-star Holiday Inn. The bureaucrat had also released a list of 163 property tax defaulters for the settlement of arrears amounting to Rs 190 million.

Bhatia had received flak for carrying on with the demolition when the court had ordered a stay in the Holiday Inn case. However, a recent report reveals that then minister of state for urban development Ravindra Mane had dismissed the appeal filed by the hotel, lifted the stay and allowed the municipal corporation to "take steps as per the legal provisions and regularities".

Meanwhile, with support for Bhatia snowballing in the city, the new municipal commissioner, Girish Pradhan, has continued the demolition drive. Reportedly, property belonging to Shiv Sena legislator Shashikant Sutar was targeted by the anti-encroachment squad on Tuesday.

"Let's face it, we are a corrupt bureaucracy -- and it takes a tremendous amount in mobilising your staff to undertake work like this at such a large level,' says Bhatia. "Taking the cue from the demolitions, some people had already started destroying illegal encroachments themselves. See, this is what happens if you have transparency in a system -- it automatically weeds out corruption. But, the moment I was transferred again, I heard people had started rebuilding what was demolished!"

Director of the National Insurance Academy P S Palande says though theoretically the government has every authority to transfer a bureaucrat any time, anywhere -- Bhatia's transfer remains suspect. In a municipal commissioner's transfer, there is the convention of consulting the mayor, who in turn consults political leaders -- at least from his party -- and there is an informal okay given to the government. "Whether this was done in Bhatia's case, is not clear," says Palande.

An IAS officer of the 1961 batch, Palande himself served as Pune's municipal commissioner from 1978 to 1982, and says there are many illegal structures which had received notices of demolition during his time, "so they have no business in saying they were not given ample notice period."

He, however, doubts if the state government will recall Bhatia to the post.

"Apparently, Girish Pradhan got his notification as the new municipal commissioner at 6 am by fax, Bhatia comes to know about this at 9 am and at 9.20 Pradhan assumes office. This seems to be a little out of place," continues Palande, who concedes that the municipal commissioner's post is not the easiest to handle. Having left a career in the civil service to pursue academics in 1982, the former bureaucrat says much of the problem occurs because the lines between politicians and bureaucrats are not drawn clearly.

'They should not have removed Bhatiasahab. This is gross injustice to him and to us'

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