Angry Mhada chief puts in his papers

Seated in his spacious chamber on the fourth floor of Mhada headquarters in Bandra (east) on Friday afternoon, feisty bureaucrat T Chandrashekhar is busy preparing his biodata and arranging his passport-sized pictures.

The officer, who has earned accolades nationwide for his work in Thane and Nagpur, seemed visibly upset at the manner in which he was sought to be humiliated by some Congress MLAs and party functionaries. They had complained against him to the chief minister for stopping builders from redeveloping encroached Mhada lands in Mumbai.

By late evening, newspaper offices were flooded with calls about his resignation. At about 7.30 pm, Chandrashekhar (45), one of the state's most controversial IAS officers, confirmed the news to this newspaper. "I have put in my papers," he said.

The resignation letter was submitted to acting chief secretary Ramanand Tiwari, who apparently told the 1987 batch officer not to take a decision in a hurry. Tiwari advised him to wait until CM Vilasrao Deshmukh returned to the city from Davos.

Earlier, Chandrashekhar had also met urban development secretary T C Benjamin in Mantralaya, who tried to talk him out of quitting. At the time of going to press, there were indications that he might consider withdrawing his resignation if chief secretary Johny Joseph, who is also in Davos, spoke to him.

Chandrashekhar's decision to quit the IAS in a huff followed a notice served on him by Benjamin which asked the Mhada chief to explain within a week why he had taken certain decisions unilaterally without the sanction of the state government.

As CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), for which he held additional charge, Chandrashekhar had withdrawn permissions granted to builders for redeveloping 120 slum pockets without seeking the permission of the government, and in particular the chief minister.

Significantly, during the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur last November, Deshmukh had told the assembly that no decision had been taken to revoke these permissions. "When some senior officials and politicians brought Chandrashekhar's unilateral decision to the CM's notice, he (Deshmukh) had to face an embarrassing situation," an official said.

Before leaving for his week-long foreign tour on January 22, Deshmukh had not only relieved the bureaucrat from his charge of the SRA, but had also asked him for an explanation for making policy changes in SRA schemes without the government's permission.
According to government sources, Chandrashekhar had merged two independent slum projects in the Bandra Kurla Complex which had allegedly benefited a private developer. The state government had sought legal opinion on this and found that the move was illegal.

Chandrashekhar has long been considered the blue-eyed bureaucrat of successive chief ministers because of his go-getting ways in implementing infrastructure projects in Thane, Nagpur and Mumbai. He first came into thelimelight during his stint as the Ratnagiri collector in 1995 when he ordered the demolition of an illegal hotel belonging to a senior Congress politician.

As Thane municipal commissioner, he had to move around with armed security following threats to his life from the local mafia. He had ordered the demolition of 20,000 unauthorised constructions and encroachments coming in the way of public projects. In this, he was strongly backed by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

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