thane the sudden transfer of top thane bureaucrats has led to resentment among the political class and residents here who questioned if shunting babus few of who joined recently would help curtail the virusit may be noted that thane chief vijay singhal was replaced within three months another bureaucrat pankaj ashiya was moved within 10 days of his deputation in the city for covid mitigation while two additional chiefs were also abruptly replaced last month in addition three deputy municipal chiefs and assistant commissioners were also shunted out even then the cases shot up to cross 6500 till dateactivists are now questioning that why the government was busy with transfers in thane when its focus should have been on covid mitigation the city is facing a spike in covid19 cases that have seen a fivefold rise in cases over the last one month new officials coming to the city will take time to understand the city and its dynamics and will end up losing time in strategizing covid mitigation work said a bureaucrat requesting anonymitywith cases in constituencies of the two cabinet ministers on the rise the opposition seems to have taken the opportunity to dig at the government the bjp and mns have questioned the failure of the shiv sena that is in power here and the state and demanded that the guardian minister eknath shinde should accept the moral responsibility of the rising cases here and step down instead of pushing the blame on the bureaucratsmns thane president avinash jadhav has challenged shinde to accept his failure in controlling the rising covid cases here and step down as the guardian minister a minister cannot simply dump his shortcomings on the administrative heads and instead of replacing commissioners eknath shinde should accept his responsibility and admit he has failed to control the covid19 spread here and step down himself said jadhavmeanwhile bjp corporator narayan pawar sought of recalling former commissioner sanjeev jaiswal back to the city it may be recalled jaiswal had left the city in a huff following political interferences in the administration especially internal transfers of junior colleagues jaiswal was aware of the city and the lacunae in the system here and can do a better job in mitigating circumstances the bureaucrat could be brought in as a special case said pawar