BENGALURU: The state government on Thursday transferred Rajkumar Khatri from the post of BDA commissioner and posted Rakesh Singh in his place.
Singh was earlier Principal Secretary to the Water Resources Department. Khatri has been posted as Principal Secretary to the Department of Youth Services and Sports.
On June 22, 2016, Khatri had replaced T Sham Bhat as BDA commissioner. Voices calling for Khatri’s replacement were being heard right from politicians to the commoner affected due to the Arkavathy Layout denotification issue.
It came out in the open on January 28 when a Congress delegation led by Yeshwantpur MLA S T Somashekar met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and submitted a written complaint against Khatri seeking his removal. Their charge was that he was not helping the common man as no progress had been made to solve the Kempe Gowda Layout and Arkavathy Layout issues.
Newcomer Rakesh Singh has major challenges ahead of him. The BDA Master Plan 2031 is yet to be ready; Arkavathy Layout allottees who are yet to be given alternative sites are threatening to go to the court and charges of corruption in site allotments are rampant.