Despite the Central government’s diktat to appoint IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers to head all municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Maharashtra government recently transferred IAS officers heading the civic bodies in haste and replaced them with non-IAS officers. The appointments are believably political and done overruling the set norms.
Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation’s (MBMC) commissioner Dilip Dhole was personal secretary to now Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr. Eknath Shinde, who was then heading the state urban development department (UDD) in the MVA Government, UDD is a body which appoints officers for smaller civic bodies. Similarly, the commissioners to Bhiwandi and Panvel municipal corporations were also headed by non-IAS officers.
The department of personnel and training (DoPT), by issuing a notification on June 15, 2018, added D-class municipal corporations in the list of civic bodies which should be mandatorily headed by an IAS officer. Six of the nine corporations (Mira-Bhayander, Vasai-Virar, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Kalyan-Dombivli and Panvel) in MMR were in the list, while the remaining three (Mumbai, Thane and Navi-Mumbai) are already in DoPT’s list that mandates the state to appoint IAS officers to head these civic bodies. In case of non-availability of an IAS officer, the state can appoint a non-IAS but not for a period of more than three months.
The Panvel civic body also never got an IAS officer, while the IAS officers appointed to head MBMC and Bhiwandi-Nizampur corporations were transferred abruptly.
Mahesh Pathak, principal secretary, UDD, said, “The DoPT notification is followed in case of availability of IAS officers. We have 17 D-class corporations and find it difficult to appoint IAS officers to head them. We face similar problems with other corporations such as Akola and Amravati, among others. We had approached GAD for the appointment of an IAS officer to head MBMC.”
In a reply to an RTI (Right to Information) query by Sanjay Pange, GAD, however, stated that UDD did not approach them for the appointment of commissioners to Mira-Bhayander, Bhiwandi-Nizampur and Panvel civic bodies.
“We have neither received any proposal from UDD, nor have we given them permission [for appointment],” the reply from GAD read.An official from GAD said, “The appointment of the commissioner of MBMC is completely political as he was the then UDD minister’s and currently who’s the Chief Minister of Maharashtra his personal assistant.
The Current Maharashtra Chief minister’s incumbent personal secretary is Mira-Bhayander commissioner since 2021 Not only DoPT’s order, but even the state government’s rules are not being followed as Mr. Dilip Dhole does not belong to the chief officer’s cadre, which heads nagar panchayats. If UDD claims that there was a shortage of IAS officers, why were the two IAS officers – Chandrakant Dange (February to June 2020) and Vijay Rathod (June 2020 to March 2021) – kept without a posting for four and three months, respectively, after their transfer from Mira-Bhayander civic body. During Covid-19, IAS officers with MBBS degrees were appointed to corporations, including Mira-Bhayander and Bhiwandi-Nizampur. Why were they transferred when Covid-19 was at its peak during the second wave?
Despite complaints to Governer of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshiyari by Sanjay Pange no action has been taken against the erring officials nor a Non IAS officer like Mr. Dilip Dhole transferred, As the Term of Elected Corporators have ended MBMC Commissioner Mr. Dilip Dhole is now in the role of a Administrator The orders have been passed in accordance with sections 6 and 6A of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1949
The above news was published in 2021 by Hindustan times and authored by Surendra P Gangan who is Senior Assistant Editor with political bureau of Hindustan Times’ Mumbai Edition.