Prime Minister Narendra Modi is viciously against the VVIP culture. Even the Maharashtra government rules clearly prohibit using state government employees for personal work. But guess who is flouting these rules? Sachin Kurve, Mumbai Suburban District Collector – a man hand-picked by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for this job. Kurve’s house in Shyam Niwas, Mahalaxmi has a battery of people for domestic help and these are 4th grade level employees from Collector’s office who are ‘told’ to do chores like cleaning vessels, ironing clothes, sweeping the floor of Kurve’s plush house during their work hours and even on their weekly off.
Impressed by his work as Nagpur Collector, Fadnavis brought Kurve to the city on April 18 this year as the District Collector (suburban). Kurve is close to RSS and has always been in the good books of Fadnavis. When the latter became CM, Kurve requested a transfer in the state citing personal reasons and soon this Uttarakhand cadre IAS officer was brought to Nagpur as the Collector in May 2015.
Arriving in Mumbai this April, Kurve first stayed in the state government’s Rashmi Guest House at Pedder road and moved to Shyam Niwas in May. Initially, the 4th grade employees were given the impression that they have to help the boss to settle down as his belongings arrived from Nagpur. However, working in Kurve’s house soon became part of work for them as they continued to undertake domestic work in shifts.
Sources told this paper how employees from the Collector’s office arrive at Kurve residence in two shifts – morning 8 am and afternoon 2 pmwherein they are made to undertaken several domestic chores by his wife. “We have to do this work to protect our job,” an employee told this paper on condition of anonymity.
And if this not enough, it is learnt that the Mumbai District (Suburban) Additional collector Rajendra Borkar, who is in-charge of Kurla, Andheri, Mulund and Borivali tehsil office, told the local revenue officers to depute lower government rank employees in Kurve’s residence. And if they refuse, just suspend them. Taken aback by this fearful of the diktat, the officers started sending employees to Kurve’s residence from the month of May.
“One does not have government employees working in the residence of any IAS officer. But Kurve has guts to do this only because of his proximity towards CM Fadnavis,” a senior IAS officer said.
When contacted, Kurve denied asking any of government employees to work in his house. “I had staff helping me out initially when I came to Mumbai. But no government employee is doing any household work in my house. I have my own domestic help and I personally go to drop my son to school. All these allegations on me are baseless,” he claimed.
Who is Sachin Kurve?
Originally from Nagpur, Sachin Kurve is from the 2003 batch of Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He went to New English School in Nagpur and then acquired Bachelors in Engineering (BE) degree. He got the Uttarakhand cadre in IAS where he worked as additional secretary to Governor of the state before being transferred to Nagpur in 2014.
Controversial tenure
Kurve has been pretty controversial in the past. As district magistrate of Haridwar, he was hauled up the two Supreme Court judges in 2012 – Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Madan Lokur for giving incorrect affidavit that there was no manual scavenging in the temple town. Both the judges felt that necessary action should have been initiated against him, but spared him of contempt of court. “Do not mess up your life,” the court had told Kurve.
Facilities for the Collector
A Collector can hire up to eight domestic staff at his/her residence. They are expected to pay their salaries from the allowances they earn. But there are clear guidelines that no government employee can be asked to do personal and domestic work.
