With this, Kale becomes the 13th UMC commissioner in the last two years to be on his way out.

Confirming news of the transfer, which he said he received a week ago, Kale noted: ``I have been asked to continue till a suitable substitute is found, but Ulhasnagar being Ulhasnagar, that is quite a depressing prospect.''

Calling his term at the UMC an ``immensely educative experience,'' Kale said: ``This place needs a ruthless official who will run UMC with an iron hand.'' He, however, lightly remarked: ``There is never a dull moment here. No sooner have you extricated yourself from a problem than you are surrounded by ten other big ones.''

Kale has had to deal with the High Court petition related to insanitation, the violence unleashed by Shiv Sainiks against his staff, illegalconstructions, the Nand Lal committee appointed by the state government to probe the functioning of UMC and the all-pervading political interference in the township (regarding which he has even complained to urban development secretary Nand Lal).

None of the IAS officers have shown willingnesss to be posted at Ulhasnagar as commissioners. (When they are posted, they proceed on leave. Even Kale, for that matter, has gone on long leaves on six different occasions in his short tenure.) The maverick TMC commissioner T S Chandrashekhar too developed cold feet when offered the post as an additional charge before Kale took over on August 28, 1998. In fact, so difficult was it to get someone here as commissioner that the government had to give Kale (who was Chief Executive Officer of Agricultural Council, Pune) a double promotion to get him posted at UMC.

A petition seeking HC's intervention to stop ``the virtual non-governance'' in UMC has also raised the issue of ``non-appointment of capable IAS officers as UMCcommissioners by the state government.''

Sources at Mantralaya said the names doing the rounds as possible successors to Kale are Sanjeevani Kutty (currently with the Censor Board on Central government deputation), Shivaji Bhairav (additional collector, Thane district) and KDMC deputy municipal commissioner R K Sonawane (earlier acting commissioner at UMC).