Mumbai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to appoint 1990 batch IAS officer Dr. Bhushan Gagrani as BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner. The development comes two days after the ECI had asked the Maharashtra Chief Secretary to transfer Iqbal Singh Chahal from the civic body.
In the last three months, the ECI had asked the state government on multiple occasions to transfer Chahal, all additional municipal commissioners and deputy municipal commissioners who have served more than three years at their current postings. The state government tried to stop Mr. Chahal’s transfer by requesting the EC. However, the election body rejected the state’s request.
Dr. Gagrani, who is till now serving as Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, took charge from Mr Chahal on Wednesday evening.
The ECI had on Monday asked the Maharashtra government to transfer Mr. Chahal from the BMC by Tuesday evening setting a deadline of 5pm. But the government did not comply with the EC directive. Subsequently, the ECI on Tuesday sought a panel of three IAS officers each for the posts of chiefs of BMC, Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC). Accordingly, the GAD (general administration department) sent the names.
Officials in the state branch of ECI said that the ECI has directed the state government to appoint Bhushan Gagrani as commissioner of BMC, Saurabh Rao as Municipal Commissioner of Thane and Kailas Shinde as Commissioner of Navi Mumbai. “Accordingly, the GAD has issued orders of transfer Gagrani, Rao and Shinde to comply with the ECI’s direction. The ECI has also directed the government to not give an additional charge to all three officers outside their respective corporation,” an official said.
A senior official in the state branch of the ECI said, “The state government has complied with all the directions of the ECI in connection with the transfer of Municipal Commissioners and additional Municipal Commissioners. We have sent a compliance report to the ECI.”
According to the sources in the state bureaucracy, Chahal is likely to be appointed as the ACS to chief minister Eknath Shinde.
