From: bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com To: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Kunte-removed-Ajoy-Mehta-is-new-BMC-chief/articleshow/47065196.cms
KUNTE REMOVED, AJOY MEHTA IS NEW BMC
CHIEF
Yogesh Naik
TWEETS@_MumbaiMirror
Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis on Sunday removed Sitaram Kunte as the municipal commissioner,
replacing him with IAS officer Ajoy Mehta, who has served several top
positions in the state administration.
Kunte, whose term as the BMC
chief was due to end on April 30, has been appointed as the principal
secretary for environment, a position Mehta held until Sunday.
The chief minister took the decision before leaving for a visit to
Israel on Sunday evening.“I have been told by the general administration
department to take over [as the municipal commissioner] on Monday,“
Mehta told Mumbai Mirror.
Kunte's transfer to the state
environment department comes amid public and political uproar over
glaring errors in the draft Development Plan (DP) for Mumbai, and a
proposal in the document for converting parts of Aarey Colony into a
business hub.
The BJP, which controls the BMC with the Shiv
Sena, and opposition parties had been pressing for Kunte's removal over
the DP debacle.
Sources in the state government on Sunday
refused to link Kunte's transfer to the controversy, pointing out that
his tenure as the municipal commissioner was about to end.
Kunte, an IAS officer of the 1985 batch, was appointed as the head of
the country's richest civic body in May 2012, replacing Subodh Kumar. He
previously served as secretary of the revenue and forest departments,
and secretary to the governor.
Mehta is an IAS officer of the
1984 batch. In
the 1990s, he was the joint municipal commissioner (improvements) in the
BMC. He has also served as the collector of Ahmednagar district and
Nashik municipal commissioner.
He is a former head of the state agriculture department and has a significant
bureaucratic experience in the power sector.
