District Officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in Kalaburagi Archana Kamalapurkar has said that Congress leader and former Mayor Sharanu Modi has made an attempt to force her to step back from seizing reverse osmosis plants operating without valid licence.
Speaking to media representatives at her office here on Tuesday, Dr Kamalapurkar said that the former Mayor called her on her mobile phone on Monday soon after she conducted a raid on three water purification plants for supplying drinking water to residents without renewing their licence.
“Of the three plants raided and seized, one is called Sanjivini Plant belonging to Sharanu Sajjan and his partners. A man called me on the phone in the evening and introduced himself as the former Mayor [Sharanu Modi] and questioned me why I raided and seized the plant. He made an attempt to deter us from discharging our duties impartially,” she said.
“How can we work impartially when we are under such pressure? If such people [like the former Mayor] call and encourage us when we raid and seize illegal and unauthorised plants, we will be happy to continue with our work,” she said.
Stating that some people called her and told her where to go and where not to go before she set out for the raid, she said that the callers introduced themselves as local MLAs men and prevented her from raiding unauthorised water purification plants. However, she appealed to those people not to interfere in her regular work.
“If those who are close to an MLA continuously call and put pressure on us, we will be pushed to the wall. If we don’t conduct raids and instead allow illegal and unauthorised plants operate as usual, complainants will then go to some other MLA and get pressure mounted on us to take action. If we go on acting upon whatever such people say, there will be no value for our sincere work,” she said and added that she will bring it to the notice of higher-level officers and also the district in-charge Minister.
Charge denied
In his response, the former Mayor dismissed the allegations levelled against him by the woman officer as false. But he admitted to having questioned the officer for what he said her selective action.
“I have never met the woman officer nor did I call her ever before. Some people came to me on Monday evening and told me about the seizure of their ISI-certified water plants as licence is not renewed. I called the officer for the first time and asked why she targeted only a couple of plants when there are over 200 such plants operating in the city and more than 100 among them have neither a licence nor ISI certification. I naturally questioned her approach to selectively target such plants. She made it a big issue,” the former Mayor told The Hindu.
He also said that the woman officer was corrupt and allowed illegal and unauthorised water plants to supply drinking water to residents by accepting bribe from them.
“She made it a big issue to cover up her corrupt deeds. But I will take up the issue to higher officers. I am a political leader and people do come to me with their problems and I have to respond to them. But the officer wants no one to question her so that she can continue her corruption,” he said.
