Eight months into job, officer who cracked down on touts and got taxi aggregators to be more accountable transferred abruptly.The state government on Thursday abruptly transferred Transport Commissioner Mahesh Zagade, who had cracked down on touts swarming the Regional Transport Offices, just eight months after he was given charge.A civil servant normally gets three years in a posting. The transfer came along with 17 other in a reshuffle. Zagade has been appointed as the Chief Executive of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran chairperson Sonia Sethi, a 1994 batch IAS officer, will take over as the state’s first woman transport commissioner.Top sources in the administration told Mirror that Transport Minister Diwakar Raote of the Shiv Sena was openly baying for Zagade’s blood, telling Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that he did not want “a Dabangg-style officer in his department.”Zagade had earlier done a stellar job as the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, cracking down on chemists who were selling scheduled drugs like abortion and sleeping pills and habit-forming psychiatric drugs without prescription.After he took over as transport commissioner in 2014, he cracked down on agents and touts who fleeced applicants. Scores of agents started lobbying for transfers. There were five instances of suspected arson at RTOs in Mumbai and elsewhere.Following the Delhi Uber rape case, he initiated a crackdown on taxi aggregators, asking them to put in place stricter safety features. He did not even spare overloaded vehicles. “He just opened up too many fronts in his effort to clean up what is openly known as one of the most corrupt departments in the government machinery,” said a retired official.Another factor that went against him was Raote believing that Zagade was getting more prominence in the media. Irreconcilable differences started cropping up between the two. Things soured so badly that even Zagade started telling his bosses that he wanted out.“The minister could not tolerate him,” said a serving officer. “It is unfortunate that the CM could not protect Zagade.’’An officer who knows Raote said, “The minister told me Zagade never listens to him.” While Kshatriya refused to comment, Zagade merely said he was happy with his new assignment. “It will be a challenging assignment,” he said.Raote told Mirror there was nothing exceptional about the transfer. “Not just Zagade, many others have been transferred,” said Raote. “I never asked anyone to transfer him or say whether I want him in my department or not. Transferring IAS officers is the CM’s prerogative. I have worked with officers like SS Tinaikar [the late Mumbai municipal commissioner known for his honesty and irreverant ways towards politicians]. You should know that if I handled Tinaikar, I can work with anyone. I never complained about Zagade.”Zagade, 56, quit a corporate job and joined the government in 1984 as an assistant secretary as part of a special recruitment drive to inject talent in the administration. He was the first officer from this special lot to be laterally nominated in the Indian Administrative Service and was assigned to the 1993 batch.Sources said even his actions as FDA commissioner -- he filed an FIR against Johnson & Johnson for defective hip implants -- resulted in back-door demands for his head, but the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan shielded him.Several officers have tried checking the rampant corruption in the transport department in recent times. Zagade’s predecessor VN More cracked down on autos with doctored meters. Zagade picked up from where he left and started digitising records with the aim of making things easier for citizens.“I was expecting this transfer as he had started a massive crack down,” said YP Singh, a retired IPS officer. “But let me tell you this is in gross violation of service rules and unjustified.”Zagade, who holds and MSc in agriculture, has earlier worked as municipal commissioner of Pune, an experience that will help him in his new assignment.Among the other transfers, Income Tax Director Virendra Singh replaces Vikram Kumar as Aurangabad collector. Kumar takes over as MIDC Joint-CEO to focus on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor.