Gandhinagar: The state govt on Tuesday transferred Surat municipal commissioner Nagarajan M from his post and appointed him as project director of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. Surat collector Tejas Parmar will hold additional charge of the post of municipal commissioner of Surat.The shunting out of Nagarajan comes a day after Gujarat High Court criticised state govt and sought an explanation why senior officers, including Nagarajan and special operations group (SOG) DCP Rajdeepsinh Nakum, were allowed to retain their posts even as an inquiry into their roles in the Nasirnagar slum demolition is underway.On Monday, Gujarat HC observed, “Why the senior officers of the corporation including the municipal commissioner and the senior officers of the police department including the DCP of SOG are permitted to continue on the posts in question?”Disapproving SMC’s proposal that the application charge of Rs 15,000 for alternative accommodation under the EWS scheme and the subsequent construction charge of over Rs 5 lakh for those who lost their houses would be borne by certain NGOs, the high court observed on Monday, “….The state and the corporation could not be permitted to shirk the responsibility as regards the persons whose houses have been demolished without any authority of law.”Over 100 homes were abruptly and unauthorisedly flattened at Nasirnagar slum in Surat’s Katargam area on May 30 this year. While SMC initially denied ordering the teardown, claiming it happened during a private land demarcation exercise, subsequent submissions in Gujarat high court had revealed the role of Surat’s civic chief, thereby placing civic and police officials under scrutiny.
