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'This is the first time that I am being reinstated'

Michael Gonsalves in Pune

"It will be my endeavour to bring about total transparency in the civic administration and importantly accountability to the citizens," senior IAS officer Arun Bhatia told Rediff On The NeT.

Bhatia, the 56-year-old bureaucrat, who was reinstated as Pune's municipal commissioner by the Bombay high court on Tuesday, said the judgment had reaffirmed the people's faith in the judiciary.

The Supreme Court today declined to stay the high court order. A division bench comprising Justices S P Bharucha and R C Lahoti declined to stay the order when the counsel for the Maharashtra government sought to list its special leave petition against the order for early hearing.

The counsel contended that Bhatia was urgently required to take up his new assignment and the impugned high court order should, therefore, be stayed till the disposal of the special leave petition.

The court also declined to give an early date for hearing of the special leave petition, adding it would come up for hearing in usual course.

Bhatia arrived at the Pune Municipal Corporation on Thursday morning to take charge, even as rumours flew thick and fast that the state government would delay the handing over of charge to obtain a stay order from the Supreme Court.

Slogans like ''Arun Bhatia age badho, hum tumhare sath hain, Bachcha bachcha kahata hain, Arun Bhatia sachcha hain" rent the air as the civil servant stepped out of a Maruti car at the PMC gate where he was accorded a traditional welcome by the social activists who have been agitating for his reinstatement for the past month under the banner of the Punekar Nagrik Kruti Samiti.

Girish Pradhan, who had replaced Bhatia after he was unceremoniously transferred on March 13 following large-scale demolitions, was not present. He is in Bombay.

Bhatia later faxed a one-line report to Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Chief Secretary P Subhramanyam, stating "I have started work today.''

"Slum development and slum-dwellers's rehabilitation, health and sanitation, improvement of municipal hospitals, garbage disposal and drinking water supply will be some of my priorities," he said, pointing out that he would try to make Pune a model city.

"Slum settlement will be my top priority as over 40 per cent of the urban population live in slums," he said, pointing out that he would seriously explore the possibility of the corporation itself taking up construction of buildings to rehabilitate slum-dwellers.

"I am of the opinion that without involving property developers, the civic body should take up the issue with the slum-dwellers. The rehabilitation can be successful, " Bhatia explained.

"It will also be quicker and more efficient as any property developer will always want their profit margins in the venture, affecting the quality of the construction."

Expressing his gratitude to the media and Pune citizens who rallied around him till the judgment was delivered, Bhatia said, "This is the first time in my career spanning active service of 32 years that I am being reinstated."

Even though serious issues like corruption in the Employment Guarantee Scheme, detention of spurious drugs in multinationals companies and illegal buildings in Mumbai affected the public and the media, it was nowhere near what happened in Pune, he said, adding that no one in the past had filed a Public Interest Litigation against the 23 transfers in his career.

"The sheer scale of support and sustained crusade for me has wiped out all the injustices I have suffered earlier as a bureaucrat," Bhatia said.

"The best moment in my life was when I heard the court order reinstating me, " he said, adding that the experience had reinforced his faith that "when you are brutally open, transparent and accountable to the public, you get massive support from both the people and the press."

Additional reportage: UNI

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