COIMBATORE: Confirming speculations doing round in the political and bureaucratic circles of Coimbatore for more than a week, the AIADMK government on Friday removed district collector M Karunagaran from the post. Allegedly a close confident of Sasikalaa Natarajan, the friend-turned-foe of chief minister J Jayalalithaa, Karunagaran's further posting has been put on hold and his wife and deputy police commissioner Hema Karunagaran is also facing the marching orders.
T N Hariharan, managing director of Tamil Nadu Housing Board and former collector of Ramanathapuram district, has been appointed as the new collector of Coimbatore and the order came into force by Friday evening. The news reached Karunakaran when he was holding a meeting with members of the Estimates Committee of State Assembly.
The new collector, who hails from Chennai, went to the temple town of Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh in a thanks giving visit as soon as he got the information. He is likely to take charge on Monday.
The sacking of Karunakaran takes place hardly a couple of days after city Corporation's deputy mayor N Chinnadurai was forced to resign for his close proximity to Sasikalaa. Two zonal chairmen of the city corporation are also likely to be removed.
A down to earth and approachable collector, Karunagaran was always the target of his rivals both in politics and bureaucracy ever since he took charge hardly six months ago. Though he was not a relative of Sasikalaa, there was a huge campaign branding him as a cousin brother of the controversial power-broker. When Karunagaran's wife Hema was appointed as deputy police commissioner, their adversaries dubbed that also as the handiwork of Sasikalaa to appease her 'close relative'.
According to sources close to the collector, he or his wife never had any relationship with Sasikalaa and they were just members of the same Thevar community to which Sasikalaa belongs to.
Sources also blamed a senior minister from Western Tamil Nadu for all the troubles now haunting the collector.
Interestingly, Karunagaran won no bad mark during his brief stint as collector and he was approachable to all. He travelled every nook and corner of the district to find a solution to the grievances of the people. His earlier sting as district revenue officer was also controversy-free. On Thursday, he released the new electoral roll of the district. But for the last one fortnight, he was prevented from taking any crucial decisions by higher-ups from Chennai.
A law graduate, the new collector had earlier worked in rural development and water conservation areas. It was only very recently, he was made MD of the housing board.
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