Mangaluru: Former MLA and Congress leader K. Vijaya Kumar Shetty has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to rein in forces that are behind frequent transfer of senior district-level officials in Dakshina Kannada, because of which not only development works are hampered but maintenance of law and order is also affected.

Praising Mr. Siddaramaiah for initiating several developmental works and pro-poor schemes, Mr. Shetty in a letter on Tuesday said the frequent transfers however have impeded percolation of all welfare schemes of the present government to the masses in Dakshina Kannada.

Being a communally sensitive district, Dakshina Kannada requires constant vigil and monitoring by the law enforcement agencies. However, Superintendents of Police of the district and Commissioners of Police of Mangaluru City were transferred six times and five times since 2013, after the present government came in, Mr. Shetty noted.

He said police were unable to apprehend the real culprits behind murders and clashes in the district as they are constantly under transfer threat. Drug addiction and peddling are spreading like cancer in the district because of frequent transfers.

Similarly, the district has seen six Deputy Commissioners after the Congress government came to power. Mr. Shetty said the DCs are not given free hand to work and alleged that the sand mafia was behind regular transfer of DCs whenever they take stern action against illegal sand extraction.

The fate of Mangaluru city has become bleak with the city corporation having as many as 11 commissioners in the last four and a half years, Mr. Shetty regretted. Commissioners who do not listen to vested interests are immediately transferred thereby crippling the functioning of the civic body and affecting city’s overall development, he said. While the State government had agreed to appoint IAS officers as commissioners when he was MLA, it was dropped later on, he regretted.

Similarly, Mangaluru Urban Development Authority has seen five commissioners while there is no full-time regional transport officer at Mangaluru since two years, Mr. Shetty pointed out.