Zagade speaks out: pressure from powerful individuals

“I could not formally say adieu to you personally as I had to leave for a training course and had been transferred thereafter and now posted as the commissioner of Food and Drug Administration for the state. Therefore,writing to you and through you,each and every employee of the PMC to thank you all. For me,at the personal level,it was a very satisfying,educative and enriching experience to work with you for almost two years. I would always cherish this association,” he said in the email. “You may have been on inummerable occasions intrigued about my functioning as it appears a little non-conventional in the domain of the routine adminsitration. The only answer and explanation to it is that…I act because I must…. For me the real beauty of it was that almost all of you responded to it very positively.”

Zagade said he had been trying two things in all his postings so far,which included implementing law as it is and reforming the system. He said implementing the law without any dilution is the basic tenet to secure public good as opposed to private or individual good. “Day in and day out,we encounter tremendous pressures from powerful individuals and some of the obnoxious tendencies working in the garb of organisational structures,to succumb to private good. You would agree with me that the system under these pressures becomes subservient to private good and the public good is rendered orphan.”

“Reform the system not only to bring it in tune with the current times but to protect the orphan as mentioned earlier and to secure its future. And this is the bigger and more formidable challenge as no one,especially in the governmental system,likes to come out of its cocoon and accept the change. But then,change is the integral part of the cosmic happenings as otherwise we would have remained unicellular microbes had we not changed and evolved,” he said,thanking those who supported both his endeavours.

“The city that you are serving deserves better planning and robust implementation of those plans in every sector of urban management activity and I am sure you will individually take forward what has been initiated through the rigorous and extensive interactions,” he said.

When contacted on suggestions to civic officers to tackle pressure,Zagade said,“I have many suggestions; however,I believe more in showing it through actual actions.”

Additional municipal commissioner M S Devnikar said he had recieved Zagade’s mail. “It is well written. There is no doubt that those in public service have to face all kind of pressures but everyone has a different way of tackling it… The style of functioning varies from person to person. Zagade delegated powers to his juniors and in turn pressure was also transferred to the lower level… There are many factors that decide the functioning of each civic staffer and it is difficult to maintain public interest,” he said.