On the morning of November 29 last year, a usually quiet Beed district in Madhya Maharashtra, woke up to the news of the transfer of its favourite District Collector — Sunil Kendrekar.

A series of protests followed in the wake and a shutdown was called for at least three times in Beed during those eventful days.

About 250 km to its West, a similar incident in February this year rocked the industrial township of Pimpri-Chinchwad, where people took to the streets to stall the transfer of the town’s municipal commissioner, Shrikhar Pardeshi.

In both cases, the Government prevailed and the villagers’ protests tapered down, only to resurface when an unseasonal hail storm hit Beed a few weeks ago. Bringing back Kendrekar and Pardeshi has now become a poll-plank for politicians campaigning in the region.

Kendreker and Pardeshi had taken on illegal sand mining, construction and corruption in their respective regions.

It is a common perception now in both these places that these honest officers were shunted out because they had started to hurt the interests of local politicians, particularly those belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Official apathy People are angry over the official apathy and inadequate attention given to their problems by politicians. Of the six Assembly constituencies in the district, five are held by NCP. People are also angry with the new district collector Naval Kishore Ram. “If Kendrekar Sir was there, he would have come immediately. He always did,” a farmer in Dharur taluka said, adding: “We have not even seen Ram’s face.”

The issue has become such an emotive one now that aspiring candidates to the Lok Sabha from the region have made it a poll plank.

Villagers claim BJP’s Gopinath Munde has promised to bring back Kendrekar, if elected. The AAP’s Nandu Madhav has made a similar promise. At present, Kendrekar is posted in Aurangabad, and Pardeshi in Pune.

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