JOIN USBuckling under pressure from officers and employees of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, the State government on Tuesday transferred Dr Rajvir Pratap Sharma, Additional Director General of Police, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF).
He will be replaced by Inspector General of Police, Dr P Ravindranath. The transfer order was issued even as the Palike engineers threatened to launch their protest from Thursday.
When contacted, Sharma said he would not comment on the government's decision to transfer him. However, he maintained that his transfer was premature.
“My tenure has not been completed yet. There are many options open, which I don't want to talk about in a public forum. It's a matter between the government and a public servant, which will be sorted out at an appropriate forum,” Sharma said.
Sharma came to the BMTF as IGP on September 9, 2011 and was promoted as ADGP. As per service rules, he should serve the Task Force for at least two years.
The senior police officer had become a nightmare for the BBMP engineers and officers, particularly the Engineer-in-Chief B T Ramesh as he registered criminal cases against them for ignoring his notices relating to violation of building plans.
People had lodged complaints with the BMTF, which served notices on the engineers, who ignored the notices.
The attitude compelled the BMTF to register cases, file charge sheets against the engineers and issue arrest warrants.
The engineers then approached the court for bail. They feared that 150 more cases might be registered against them.
They struck work and contractors - including garbage contractors - joined them, leading to a huge pile-up of rubbish on City roads.