Mangaluru : The State government on Saturday transferred C.L. Anand, Commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC). He was replaced by Ravichandra Naik, Special Land Acquisition Officer, Upper Tunga Project, Shivamogga.

Mr. Anand was transferred to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms with immediate effect.

It may be mentioned here that councillors of the city corporation, irrespective of parties, were at loggerheads with Mr. Anand over release of their area development funds as the five-year term of the council will end next month. They had rushed to the Well of the Council in its monthly meeting on January 4 and pressed the Commissioner to release Rs.1 crore to each of the councillors as announced by the former Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur. The Commissioner maintained that he would release the amount based on the priority of the projects to be taken up and availability of funds. The councillors were not happy with this and demanded that the funds be released as announced.

In addition, Abdul Rauf, a Congress councillor, speaking at the meeting, accused the Commissioner of indulging in irregularities. The allegation was silently approved by all councillors as none of them countered it. But refuting the allegations, Mr. Anand said they were baseless as there was no truth in them. He said he was open for any inquiry as he was a public servant.