PUNE, April 26: The Maharashtra Government has decided to drop its appeal in the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order on April 13 quashing the transfer of Pune Municipal Commissioner Arun Bhatia, Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde said.The Government is of the opinion that Bhatia should be allowed to do his work freely, Munde told newsmen here on Sunday. ``We don't want to be a stumbling block in his way,'' he said.Munde said that the State Government would extend all cooperation to Bhatia in his drive for the demolition of illegal constructions. The Government will not come in the way of Bhatia nor exert pressure on him, Munde said. When his attention was drawn to the report that the Urban Development Department had faxed a letter to Bhatia asking him not to raze the illegal portions of Hotel Sagar Plaza pending a hearing of the case, Munde assured that such orders would not be issued to him in the future.He also admitted that former BJP corporator Yogesh Gogavale and three prominent citizens of Pune had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Narayan Rane naming the illegal structures of politicians and businessmen. ``Let Bhatia take action against such buildings,'' he averred.To a question, he said the country was heading for mid-term polls and BJP was fully prepared for it. He said Congress had boasted that if the Vajpayee government falls, it would form a new government within five minutes. Now seven days are over since the BJP-led government was voted out and still there is no sign of Congress forming a government, he said.Earlier during the gathering, Munde said that the anti-defection law should be made more stringent so as to annul the membership of an elected representative the moment the latter shifted party loyalties. The present law governing defection is fraught with loopholes and there has not yet been any instance of a defector being punished so far, Munde said.Munde was of the opinion that a rigid system needs to be evolved to ensure that a duly-installed government would last its full-term despite being subject to pulls and pressures from coalition partners. ``The country cannot afford frequent elections,'' the deputy chief minister pointed out.Munde, who holds the energy portfolio, was non-committal about streamlining the power supply in the State and refrained from announcing a time-frame for the withdrawal of load-shedding that has been causing concern. While agreeing that there is a tremendous gap in the demand and supply of power, all that Munde could assure was that henceforth the load-shedding in the State would not be implemented in an arbitrary fashion but would be planned properly.Former Union minister Mohan Dharia, BJP city president Pradeep Rawat, Mayor Dutta Gaikwad and others were present. Top
