Maharashtra: Majority Of Deputy Collectors Defy Recall Order, Seek To Retain Deputation In Key Civic Bodies

Despite clear orders from the revenue department, only 12 out of 29 deputy collectors have relinquished their deputation posts and returned to their parent department. The recall order, issued on June 27, directed all of them to report back to the revenue department by Monday. The move, reported by The Free Press Journal, created a stir within the department. The cancellation of deputations was initiated at the behest of Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

Most of the officers do not appear in a mood to join their parent department as they are holding key lucrative posts in prominent civic bodies and authorities such as the MMRDA, SRA, MHADA, etc. Getting posts in such authorities is not easy, and many of them do not want to go into the hinterlands of Maharashtra to serve semi-urban and rural areas, said a senior official.

According to him, at least four deputy collectors have knocked on the doors of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) with a plea to cancel the orders. But the department has every right to call them back. And the department is already facing a shortage of deputy collectors since 116 posts are vacant. After promoting 80 deputy collectors to the post of additional collectors, the department is left with no choice but to cancel the deputations, he said.

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Services of the deputy collectors were needed because of the upcoming elections to the local bodies, as they are appointed as the Returning Officers (ROs), the official said. The government was well within its rights to cancel the deputation, and according to a service rule, those who have completed one year at the current post of appointment can be repatriated.

On the contrary, even if an officer is away on deputation for more than three years (a fixed tenure of deputation as per the rule), his deputation can not be cancelled if he has not completed one year in the current post he is serving, the official said.

According to sources, most of the deputy collectors who are on deputation at municipal corporations are unwilling to join, and they have started lobbying through Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the Urban Development Department.