Mumbai: Avinash Pathak, a 2013-batch IAS officer, has received transfer orders from his post as the district collector of Beed, where he served the longest tenure of his career. His extended stay in Beed had become a matter of intense public debate, particularly after the killing of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.
Pathak was among five IAS officers whose transfer orders were issued by the state government on Tuesday. He will be succeeded by Vivek Johnson (2018 batch), currently serving as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Chandrapur Zilla Parishad.
About Avinash Pathak
Pathak has been posted as managing director of Maharashtra State Fisheries Development Corporation which is known as a side posting.
Pathak became closely associated with the administration in Beed, having begun his career in late 1990s as the Tehsildar of Patoda taluka. Over the years, he held various positions in the district, including land acquisition officer, deputy collector, and residential deputy collector. He served as the returning officer when late BJP leader Gopinath Munde won his first Lok Sabha election in 2009. Except for a four-year period when he was posted in Jalna during the Covid-19 outbreak and later in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Pathak has served exclusively in Beed.
Pathak was appointed as the CEO of Beed Zilla Parishad in 2023 and became the district collector 10 months ago. Fingers were raised for his longest stint in the district as his alleged hobnobbing with the who's who of the district politics. After the murder of Santosh Deshmukh, he was blamed for the weak administration that failed to rein in the terror of the likes of Valmik Karad and their political bosses.
He is said to be enjoying excellent rapport with former minister Dhananjay Munde. Pathak had to cancel over 300 arms licenses in the wake of the controversies over illegal sand mining and the involvement of local mafias in the transportation of ash from the Parli Thermal Power plant. Although fingers were pointed at the administration for the state of affairs in Beed, no significant transfers took place except the district superintendent of Beed and a few police officers, soon after Deshmukh’s murder.
