Pune: Member of Parliament (MP) Girish Bapat has said that transferring Pune Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad is a 'wrong move' and is 'politically motivated' to make Gaikwad a scapegoat for the failure of government in containing the COVID-19 outbreak.
"First a sudden lockdown and now these transfers are a series of mistakes made by the government. They are playing politics as the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). We condemn it," Bapat said.
Bapat on Saturday had heavily criticized the decision of re-imposing a 10-day long lockdown in the city. Hitting out at Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Bapat had alleged that elected representatives were not taken into confidence by the government and district administration before announcing the decision. Various political parties including the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Republican Party of India (A) have opposed the lockdown announced by local administration on instructions of Pawar. PMC Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad too had opposed the lockdown move in the review meeting and was transferred a day later. Gaikwad has now been sent back as Sugar Commissioner of Maharashtra and Vikram Kumar, the Chief Executive Officer of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) has been made the new Municipal Commissioner of Pune city.
Commenting on these IAS officers' transfers, Bapat said, "The decision to transfer Commissioner Gaikwad is wrong and he has been made a scapegoat for the government failure in containing Covid-19 outbreak. Gaikwad had worked well to control the spread of coronavirus in Pune city in the last few months and transferring senior officers is not right. The state government says don't play politics during a crisis, but we doubt that decisions like transferring officers are taken with a political motive."
"The state government is taking such inconsistent decisions because the BJP is in power at the PMC. First, a sudden lockdown and now these transfers are a part of a series of wrong decisions. I condemn it strongly," Bapat added.
