Four civic chiefs in Mumbai metropolitan region shunted out as cases rise

MUMBAI: In a major reshuffle late Tuesday night, the state government transferred four municipal commissioners in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), including the Thane civic chief Vijay Singhal who had joined the post only three months ago. Others include civic chiefs of Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, and Mira-Bhayander municipal corporations. In another civic body, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, the civic chief was transferred on Saturday.
The four transfers came on a day the Covid-19 count in MMR touched one lakh. Singhal has been replaced by Dr Vipin Sharma. The transfer order was issued late Tuesday night as “CM Uddhav Thackeray felt the situation in Thane was getting out of control,” said a source close to the ruling alliance. Singhal told TOI that he did his best for Thane despite taking up the job amid the Covid-19 crisis. “Thane has got the lowest rate of deaths and we have managed to increase doubling rate to 28 days. I have been travelling through the worst-affected areas,” he said.
Singhal drew the ire of Shiv Sena leader and guardian minister Eknath Shinde after the satellite city witnessed a spike in cases since May. The minister was upset after numbers in his assembly constituency saw a huge rise. “Shinde has often given the civic chief a dressing down during review meets,” the source said.
Three of the five commissioners transferred since Saturday have been replaced with officers who have a medical background.
Samir Unhale, Ulhasnagar municipal chief, was moved out within a month of his posting, while Chandrakant Dange, Mira-Bhayandar civic chief was shunted out after being posted there in February. Unhale has been replaced by Dr Mantada Dayanidhi and Dange by Dr Vijay Rathod. Pravin Ashtikar was the Bhiwandi-Nizampur municipal chief who was moved out, with Pankaj Ashiya assigned his job. A B Misal, commissioner, Navi Mumbai (NMMC), has been replaced with Abhijit Bangar.
The Covid-19 crisis has seen the transfers of several bureaucrats starting with Praveen Pardeshi, who was shunted out as BMC chief last month and replaced by Iqbal Chahal.
Misal had joined in July last year as NMMC chief, but his ouster is not surprising, said corporators and activists who had “seen it coming” given his “inability to take decisions to tackle the pandemic.”
Vashi corporator Divya Gaikwad told TOI: “The 1,200-bed Covid care centre was started at Cidco Exhibition Centre at Vashi only recently due to delays. NMMC also started thinking of having its own testing lab in June.”