Leaders of Revenue Employees’ Union of Yavatmal booked

Yavatmal: Four senior leaders of the Revenue Employees’ Union of Yavatmal were booked for cheating and forgery on a complaint lodged in city police station by tehsildar of Yavatmal Anup Khande on June 10, on an order from collector Sachindra Pratap Singh. Three of them have been kept under suspension and one is being an ex employee of the revenue department, so he could not be suspended.Those booked are president of the union Gajanan Takey, secretary Nandkmar Bute, union chief Ravindra Deshmukh and treasurer Ashok Katiyarmal. Takey, Bute and Katiyarmal have been suspended. Deshmukh, retired from service two years ago. No arrest was made in this regard as one of the co-accused Ravindra Deshmukh has approached the HC and the division bench comprising Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice PN Deshmukh has ordered the PSO of Yavatmal city police station not to take any coercive steps till the case is finally heard and disposed of by the court. The next hearing is fixed on July 20. Addressing a press meet, Ravindra Deshmukh denied the allegations and said RDC Rajesh Kawle was behind the curtain to create a hoax in the administration as they refused to channelize fund from the Employees’ Welfare Fund as desired by him. He questioned the action taken by the collector in transferring the welfare fund of Rs1.33 crore from the Employees’ Credit Society to State Bank of Hyderabad.
“We have vacated the canteen and the xerox centre allotted to the union by the previous collectors on the order from the collector,” Deshmukh said and denied the allegation of illegal possession and leasing out the premises. When asked about his reaction, the RDC Rajesh Kawle has confirmed the filing of FIR and the suspension of the three accused. He has also confirmed that the district collector has transferred the amount pertaining to the employees’ welfare fund from the Employees Credit Society headed by Ravindra Deshmukh to the nationalized bank for its security. Enquiries made in this regard revealed that the then district Collector P.C. Manjekar has granted permission to the Union to run the canteen sometime in 1989 and the district collector Vikas Kharge has granted permission to the Union to run the Xerox centre.
However, the union leaders have rented out these premises belonging to the State
Govt to third persons and collected the monthly rent from them regularly. In 2008, the then Collector Sanjay Deshmukh has allotted 2000 sq feet of land in the collectorate for constructing an office for the Welfare Fund. Accordingly, a three storeyed building was constructed by utilizing the welfare fund. A part of the building has been rented out to the Employees Credit Society and another part has been rented to SBI for its ATM counters. The rent has been credited to the Welfare fund, it is claimed. The Union has determined to launch an indefinite strike probably from Monday (June 29) to protest against the District Collector Sachindra Pratap Singh and his RDC Rajesh Kawle for their dictatorial rulings. “Let the Collector and the RDC run the administration as we have decided to launch an indefinite stir,” Ravindra Deshmukh said and cautioned the administration of intensifying their agitation against dictatorship and pressure tactics. However, the public by and large is happy with the actions mooted by the new collector during the last one month of his office tenure to beef up the administration and all the eyes are now set on the next step to be taken by the collector with regard to his own staffers.