Chandrashekhar is metropolitan head

The state on Friday promoted Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) additional commissioner T Chandrashekhar as Metropolitan Commissioner. The post had been lying vacant after the government appointed incumbent commissioner Suresh Joshi as the Chief Information Officer. Chandrashekhar’s appointment means principal secretaries of Urban Development R Tiwari and Nana Patil could either continue in the same department or could be given another posting.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s (chairman of MMRDA) decision to promote Chandrashekhar, is seen as a slap on Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Gurudas Kamat, who had accused Chandrashekhar of corruption while implementing the slum rehabilitation scheme.

Sources said Deshmukh had told Congress president Sonia Gandhi that the charges made against Chandrashekhar indirectly portrayed him in a bad light. Deshmukh reportedly told the Congress chief that Mithi river cleaning, the Mumbai Urban Transport and Mumbai Urban Infrastructure projects being implemented by Chandrashekhar were necessary if the party were to win the civic elections in 2007.