Tejas Navale

Pune: Yesterday, the District Collector and Assistant Election Officer of Khed-Alandi Vidhan Sabha Constituency, Jogendra Katyare, levelled serious allegations against the District Collector and District Election Officer of Pune, Dr. Suhas Diwase. Katyare, in his letter written to the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, the Chief Electoral Officer of the state, and the Central Election Commissioner on Wednesday, accused Dr. Diwase of having political connections with the existing MLA of Khed Assembly Constituency and working under their influence.

There are almost 3 to 4 days left to the results of the 18th Lok Sabha general elections, which are scheduled to be announced on June 4. However, as Katyare has made such serious allegations against the District Election Officer, just before the results declaration, much uproar has been created in the district administration.

In his letter, Katyare demanded the transfer of Dr. Diwase before the voting; otherwise, according to him, the local officials and employees will not be able to work transparently in the upcoming assembly elections. Katyare accused, "Dr. Diwase was appointed to the post of Collector just before the Lok Sabha elections were announced. He has worked in Pune as Agriculture Commissioner, Sports Commissioner, Municipal Commissioner of PMRDA, and various other posts in the Pune district for many years. Therefore, he has close relations with the political leaders of Pune, and his behaviour is favourable to the political leaders."

Katyare accused that Dr. Diwase took away his rights of land acquisition even though the Code of Conduct for Lok Sabha Elections was going on, and especially when it was not in his jurisdiction to take such a decision, to please political leaders. He further said that despite the ongoing investigation into my earlier land acquisition decision, Dr. Diwase also appointed another independent investigation team to trouble me and raided my office and that of the village Tehsildar on May 28. "He is doing it to pressurise me by siding with the existing MLA of the Khed constituency," said Katyare.

"The local incumbent MLAs of the village do not want me and my tehsildar to work independently, so they want to transfer us for their political and economic motives. Instead of working officially, Dr. Diwase is working as an intermediary for some political leaders," Katyare added further in the letter.

In the letter, Katyare also spoke of his fear that after the voting, the political leaders and Dr. Diwase would transfer him. "Attempts are being made to transfer me so that the existing MLA can fulfil their political and financial wishes, and for that, they are unconstitutionally fabricating evidence against me," said Katyare.

"In spite of the busy schedule of a district election officer during the election, the existing MLA of Khed assembly constituency regularly met Dr. Diwase during the election period. Surprisingly, during training for Baramati Constituency on May 28, the Assistant Election Returning Officer of Indapur Assembly Constituency was busy raiding my and Tehsildar's offices while being absent from the training," Katyare mentioned in the letter, accusing the Assistant Election Returning Officer of Indapur Assembly Constituency of being part of these cahoots.