Is Beed collector Kendrekar’s transfer a political win for builder-neta lobby?

Kendrekar, IAS

THE video footage of people staging protests on the streets of Maharashtra’s Beed city will convince anyone that common people do get attached to their district collector sahib. And at times, there are political divide over a bureaucrat. The Beed protestors on Thursday were shouting slogans against Prithviraj Chavan government and its political partner NCP in particular, for what they called a victimization of their collector and 2002 batch IAS Sunil Kendrekar. The officer just came back from a...
training programme in Netherlands when he learnt that he was transferred out of the district. This would have passed as a routine administrative matter, had political heavyweights not crossed swords over his transfer. Not just that, BJP and newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party are now planning more protests to keep the issue alive.
So what’s the core issue? According to BJP leaders, Kendrekar launched a drive against illegal activities in Beed and became a fear factor for oil, sand and land mafia. There were fears that illegal structures that have mushroomed during the last few years in Beed will be demolished. So, local NCP leaders reportedly lobbied against the officer, and chief minister Chavan allegedly ordered the transfer at the behest of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. But NCP leaders have now told local media that Kendrekar was none but a “BJP man”, and hence were those protests. While talking to media, chief minister said the decision was apolitical and routine.
47-year-old Kendrekar was a mechanical engineer before joining as IAS. He belongs to Maharashtra cadre.
BoI could not independently verify the actual facts behind this case, but it’s not uncommon that hard-hitting and fiercely independent district collectors often come under the radar of powerful builders-politicians lobby.