MUMBAI: Congress MLA and guardian minister of island city Aslam Shaikh on Friday demanded two civic commissioners for Mumbai. He stated that apart from breaking up the big administrative wards like P-North, there was a need to have two BMC commissioners, one for the island city and one for the suburbs. Shaikh said that he was pursuing the matter with the urban development department of the state government.
Mumbai has 24 administrative wards headed by the BMC commissioner, and its headquarters is at CSMT. There are four additional municipal commissioners (senior IAS officers) to assist the commissioner.
Shaikh said, “The commissioner office is in one corner of the city, and it is not possible for the commissioner to visit another corner like Dahisar. There is a long-pending demand to have a separate civic commissioner for the suburbs (eastern and western), and I am pursuing the matter with the urban development department.”
The department recently informed BJP’s Kandivli MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar that the BMC had decided to divide the P-North (Malad) ward, the most populous in the city, into two, along with some other wards in the city. The BMC is still working on the proposal and there is no timeframe for implementing the decision. Meanwhile, Shaikh stated that he will request the government to include the demand for two commissioners also in the proposal