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Arun Bhatia to be re-transferred to archives

The controversial commissioner of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Arun Bhatia, will be transferred to the Archives Department, Bombay as its commissioner. Maharashtra Chief Minister Narayan Rane today said that the official order to this effect would be released tomorrow. Ratnakar Gaikwad, who at present is on leave, has been tipped off to replace Bhatia.

Earlier in the day the Pune Municipal Corporation passed a no-confidence motion against Bhatia thus paving the way for his transfer.

Ironically, even those corporators, who had in March this year lent support to the agitation launched by the Punekar Nagrik Kruti Samiti demanding reinstatement of Bhatia following his unceremonious transfer, supported the no-confidence motion.

The one-line no-confidence motion was moved by Chandrakant Chajjed of the Congress which stated that the elected representatives were finding it very difficult to work with Bhatia as the commissioner and he should, therefore, be recalled.

After the motion was moved, Bhatia sought permission of the mayor to remain absent during the discussions. In a letter to the mayor he stated that he would present himself to give his reply when called to do so.

After the discussions were over and Bhatia came back to give his reply, agitated corporators sought an explanation from him as to why he had preferred to stay away through the discussions. A calm and composed Bhatia waited for the din to die down before stating that he had not felt it necessary to sit through the discussions since the contents of the impeachment motion were already known to him. He said that his action was not intended to insult the corporators.

Earlier, while participating in the discussions, corporator after corporator, cutting across party lines, spoke in favour of the no-confidence motion with the common refrain being that Bhatia's style of functioning was dictatorial in nature, he considered others as imperfect and that he meted insulting treatment to the elected representatives and even the mayor.

The Republican Party of India, which had vociferously supported Bhatia's reinstatement in March this year, also supported the motion although with a ''heavy heart''. The RPI corporators spoke about Bhatia's slum improvement plans and said that though they supported the motion they expected the commissioner replacing Bhatia to continue along the same lines and carry on the anti-encroachment drive and slum improvement programmes.

Even the Congress, which had also earlier lent its support for Bhatia's reinstatement, minced no words in condemning him. One of its corporators accused the commissioner of having virtually halted all developmental works during his 45 days in the office and busied himself only in vengeful activities.

Bhatia sought to give a point-by-point reply to the questions raised by the corporators. He was, however, interrupted from time to time which prevented him from presenting his case. While concluding, he made it clear that though he was ending his reply, he had not really had his say.

The no-confidence motion was passed by a voice vote by all 122 corporators present. It was the first such impeachment motion in the history of the Pune Municipal Corporation.

UNI

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