NON-IAS officers made heads of civic bodies; did state flout norms ?

MUMBAI: Despite the Central government’s diktat to appoint IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers to head all municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the state recently transferred IAS officers heading the civic bodies in haste and replaced them with non-ias ones. The appointments are believably political and done overruling the set norms. Incumbent Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation’s (MBMC) commissioner Dilip Dhole was personal secretary to Eknath Shinde, who heads the state urban development department (UDD), which appoints officers for smaller civic bodies. Similarly, the commissioners to Bhiwandi and Panvel municipal corporations are also headed by non-ias officers. Shinde said, “The decision on appointments is taken as per the availability of officers. NON-IAS officers are appointed with permission from the CM. We can’t keep the posts vacant for want of [IAS] officers.”

The department of personnel and training (DOPT), in a 2018 notification, added D-class municipal corporations in the list of civic bodies which should be mandatorily headed by an

IAS officer. Six of the nine corporations (Mira-bhayander, Vasaivirar, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-nizampur, Kalyan-dombivli and Panvel) in MMR were in the list, while the remaining three (Mumbai, Thane and Navimumbai) are already in DOPT’S list that mandates the state to appoint IAS officers to head these civic bodies. In case of nonavailability of an IAS officer, the state can appoint a non-ias but not for more than three months. The Panvel civic body never got an IAS officer, while the IAS officers appointed to head MBMC and Bhiwandi-nizampur corporation was transferred abruptly.

Dattatray Bharane, minister of state for general administration department (GAD), said, “Shortage of officers has compelled us to appoint junior officers. The appointments could be temporary.” Mahesh Pathak, principal secretary, UDD, said, “We had approached GAD for the appointment of an IAS officer to head MBMC.”

However, in an RTI query by ex-corporator Sanjay Pange, GAD stated, “We have neither received any proposal from UDD, nor have we given them permission.”