Pune: Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad gets additional responsibility as Pune District Collector

Pune: Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer Ayush Prasad has been given the additional responsibility as Pune District Collector. Prasad has replaced Naval Kishor Ram, who has been transferred as the Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister Office (PMO) in New Delhi.

Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao has issued the orders for handing over the charge of District Collector post to Prasad on August 8 (Saturday). These orders were issued four days after Ram was asked to join the PMO office.

Divisional Commissioner Rao’s orders stated that the charge handover orders must be implemented with immediate effect. Naval Kishor Ram handed over the charge to Prasad on Saturday late evening and left for New Delhi to join the PMO office.

While speaking to media persons, Prasad had refrained from commenting on Sunday about his additional responsibility as District Collector. Prasad has been given the additional charge of District Collector as he is still not eligible for the post. By seniority Prasad will be eligible for this post in January 2021.

Besides the responsibility of District Collector, Ram was also the head of Pune District Disaster Management Authority and responsible for the Covid-19 situation management in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cities.

After Shreekar Pardeshi and Kunal Kumar, Ram is the third officer to be hand-picked by the PMO office for handling crucial responsibility at the centre. When Ram’s transfer orders were issued, four other names of officers were doing the rounds who were interested in the post of Pune District Collector. G Shreekant, presently the District Collector of Latur, Dr Yogesh Mhase, presently working as Chief Executive Officer of MHADA in Mumbai, Suhas Divase, Commissioner of Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and Shravan Hardikar, presently working as Commissioner of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation were the four officers, all four closely associated with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, were seen as contenders for the coveted post.