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Praveen Pardeshi (file photo)
MUMBAI: CM Uddhav Thackeray on Friday he deviated BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi for “inept” handling of the Covid-19 crisis, replacing him with IAS officer Iqbal Singh Chahal (56) who has been secretary of the state’s urban development department.
While there were reports that Pardeshi had changed because the core team in the city led by veteran bureaucrat Manoj Joshi had expressed discontent at BMC’s handling of the situation, in the halls of power in Maharashtra, the transfer was seen. as a consequence of the conflict. cold war between Pardeshi and the chief secretary of the state, Ajoy Mehta.
Pardeshi’s departure came less than a year after he assumed the role of civic chief. Considered the “blue-eyed boy” of former CM Devendra Fadnavis, Pardeshi took over as Mumbai’s municipal commissioner on May 13 last year. He will now take Chahal’s place in the urban development department.
A high-ranking bureaucrat said Thackeray was upset after a BMC-administered Sion Hospital video clip showed bodies lying at Sion Hospital alongside patients admitted to Covid-19 ward that went viral on Wednesday. Pardeshi was also blamed for his flip flops and for not consulting Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh on key issues. The bureaucrat said that after Chief Secretary Mehta had granted permission to open liquor stores in Mumbai, the BMC was expected to coordinate with Singh to ensure there were no public order problems. Since that didn’t happen, the liquor stores had to close due to the large crowds just two days after it opened, he said.
Furthermore, the bureaucrat said, between the visit of the first central team on April 21 and the visit of another central team on Thursday and Friday, there was no progress in fighting the crisis in the city.
The bureaucrat said the two teams had found several loopholes in the BMC administration because the civic corps, despite its huge workforce, was unable to stop the spread of the disease.
Along with Pardeshi, the CM transferred more than half a dozen high-ranking bureaucrats on Friday. Additional Chief Secretary (PWD) Manoj Saunik will take over the reins of the state finance department, while aid and rehabilitation secretary Kishore Raje Nimbalkar will replace him. Additional City Commissioner A L Jarad will replace Nimbalkar, while former Metro 3 Managing Director Ashwini Bhide and former Thane City Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal were appointed to the BMC as additional City Commissioners. AMC Jaysahree Bhoj will be the new managing director of Maharashtra Small Scale Industries Development Corporation.
The new civic chief, Chahal, an IAS officer from the 1989 lot, had previously worked with the water resources department before moving to the urban development department.
Chahal belongs to Rajasthan and joined the IAS in 1989. After completing his training at the IAS academy, his first position was at Nashik from 1993 to 1996 as executive director, zilla parishad. He was a collector of Aurangabad from 1997 to 2001 and in Thane from 2001 to 2004. Later he was commissioner of special taxes between 2007 and 2011 and secretary of medical education from 2011 to 2013. He was in deputation with the Government of India from 2014 to 2016, and When he returned to the state, he was named secretary of water resources in 2016 and later secretary of urban development in February of this year.
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