A trainee IAS officer in Pune, Puja Diliprao Khedkar, 32 is making news for making unfair demands from the administration forcing Pune collector Dr Suhas Diwase to write to the chief secretary Sujata Sainik, seeking help. As per the exclusive report by Pune Mirror, IAS trainee Puja Khedkar has been demanding an official car with a VIP number plate, red-blue beacon light, and an official chamber with adequate staff at her call.
As per the administrative rules, these facilities are not available for any probationer. However, Khedkar’s father Diliprao, a retired administrative officer has been reportedly pressurising the District Collector’s Office for fulfilling his daughter’s demands. He has also threatened the officers saying that they would face dire consequences if his daughter’s demands are not fulfilled.
In the meantime, trainee officer Khedkar has been using her private vehicle and has applied a VIP number plate on it. She is also said to have encroached on the office of Additional Collector Ajay More in his absence. She put up her sign on his chamber door in his absence and claimed the space as her own office chamber.
The woman has been harassing the officers for the past three months, as per the report by Pune Mirror. One of the officers while exclusively talking to Pune Mirror said that she had to be appointed as a gazette officer first to avail all these benefits. “The father-daughter duo are making unfair demands and harassing the officers for demands that cannot be fulfilled,” he added.
As per the report, the duo threatened to escalate the matter and drag Mumbai officials into the case. This forced Pune collector Dr Suhas Diwase to write to the chief secretary Sujata Sainik, seeking help. The matter remains to be heard yet.
Notably, the tale of Khedkar entering the IAS is also well-known and notorious.
According to the UPSC communication dated February 2, 2022, Pooja Khedkar was denied an appointment. However, she filed an affidavit in court claiming to be visually challenged and mentally unwell, and her suit sought an order against the federal government and UPSC.
In the 2023 hearing, Judge MG Shevlikar’s bench presented the affidavit under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016. Khedkar subsequently joined the Indian Administrative Service.
