Nagpur: The new marketing manager for Mihan-SEZ, who will replace Atul Thakre, the
officer who quit last week alleging he was being targeted for giving away information on land allotment to Patanjali Group under RTI, will be based at Nagpur, say sources. After a brief stint in Mumbai on joining, the incumbent will be posted at Nagpur where the SEZ is coming up.
Patanjali Group had bagged 230 acre land in the non-SEZ area of
Mihan through a tender process in 2016. The company is building a food park on the site. It was through Thakre that the information related to the tender process was provided under RTI. A week after the information was shared, he was abruptly shunted to Mumbai from Nagpur 16 months ago. The decision was being linked to the RTI information he gave out. Thakre says he repeatedly requested to be sent back, as he belonged to the city, before he quit.
Thakre said
MADC had received a query under RTI seeking details of land allotment to Patanjali Group. Initially, the agency sat over the information. The matter first came to the desk of Deepali Muley — the then marketing manager at Mumbai, who also served as public information office (PIO). Muley quit soon afterwards, since she ‘was unable to work following an accident’.
As the information was not shared, the petitioner went into appeal before senior marketing manger Vivek Sharma, but nothing came of it. Finally, summons were issued from the office of state information commissioner.
Thakre said he was deputed by his then boss, IAS officer Vishwas Patil, who was vice-chairman-cum-managing director (VCMD), to attend the hearing. “I said before the commissioner that details can be submitted in a couple of days. A week later, I provided the information, and I was shunted to Mumbai. Even a promotion which was due was denied,” said Thakre. Now, even Sharma has quit, he adds.
Thakre told TOI that he had made four official requests to his superiors to send him back. Now, the person replacing him is expected to be mostly placed in Nagpur, where much of the work related to Mihan-SEZ takes place.
Thakre’s counterpart in Mumbai — Sameer Gokhale — had been sent to Nagpur. No decision has been taken on Gokhale’s posting as yet, who is still at Nagpur.
Officials at Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), the state government agency developing Mihan-SEZ, called Thakre’s transfer a routine move. “He was shifted after a tenure of four years. Since Nagpur is the field office of Mihan-SEZ, and MADC’s headquarters are at Mumbai, the plan was to give Thakre exposure of working at the head office .At the same time, Gokhale had to be trained to work in the field office at Nagpur,” said Suresh Kakani, current VCMD of MADC.
Kakani said interviews have been held to appoint a new marketing manager replacing Thakre. The person, after a stint at Mumbai, will be mainly posted at Nagpur. However, the job will be of flexible nature and transfers could happen anywhere, including to cities where MADC has other projects, he said. On Gokhale’s transfer, he said a decision will be taken later.
