PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioner Shravan Hardikar on Friday was appointed the Inspector General of Registration and Controller of Stamps for Pune division.
Hardikar will be replaced as PCMC chief by Odisha cadre IAS officer Rajesh Patil, who could take charge on Monday.
In other transfers, S Chockalingam, the state settlement commissioner and director of land records, was appointed the director-general of the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA) in Pune; N K Sudhanshu, who was on central deputation, will be the new state settlement commissioner and director of land records; and Prerana Deshbhratar, commissioner of the disability welfare cell, has been transferred as Wardha district collector.
Hardikar assumed charge of the PCMC on April 27, 2017.
Hardikar told TOI the focus of his roughly three-and-a-half-year tenure had been on strengthening the city’s infrastructure. “Issues like waste management, water supply, sewage, mobility improvement, new health infrastructure, and starting new economic activities were some of the aspects that I laid emphasis on,” he said.
Hardikar said the only regret he has during his tenure as municipal commissioner was that he could not do more for slum rehabilitation.
“This city belongs to the poor as much as it does the rich. But still, there are many who live in extreme poverty. We were going to start a few slum rehabilitation projects,” Hardikar said.
He conceded that working towards Covid-19 mitigation was challenging in the initial days of the pandemic due to the unavailability of knowledge on the subject. “We worked very hard, all of us, and performed better in restricting the spread of the contagion. I still wish I could have saved more lives,” he said.
Senior police officers transferred
Deputy commissioner of police Srinivas Ghadge was on Friday posted in the Pune police crime branch. Ghadge replaces outgoing DCP (crime) Bachchan Singh. Singh’s new posting is awaited. The state government on Friday issued a transfer order of seven senior police officers.