CM snubs Rane, Kamat, promotes MMRDA chief

MUMBAI: Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s decision to promote T Chandrashekhar as the head of MMRDA is seen as a clear snub to Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamat and revenue minister Narayan Rane. Mr Chandrashekhar was an additional commissioner in MMRDA, earlier.

The ruling party’s city chief had recently launched a virulent campaign against the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) top man, T Chandrasekhar. The chief minister’s camp believes that it was not just Mr Kamat, who was gunning for Mr Chandrshekhar. The move seems to have been supported by the revenue minister Narayan Rane, the latest contender to CM’s chair. Mr Kamat was so angry with the MMRDA chief that he had complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing him of being “corrupt”.

In letters to Mr Singh and Mr Deshmukh, Mr Kamat had criticised the civic body chief for “favouring the builder lobby” in the city. He wanted the state and the Centre to probe into Chandrashekar’s allegedly “fraudulent” deals.

“Today, top Mumbai builders are leaving their own projects and concentrating on buildings for the MMRDA. This shows that builders feel they have a high profit margin if they construct tenements where there is no check on quality control,” he had said.

Since these letters evinced no response from the chief minister, Mr Kamat and his supporters, later had threatened to lodge a complaint with the state’s Lokayoukta against Mr Chandrasekhar.

However, the campaign does not seem to have worked. Instead of a reprimand, Mr Chandrasekhar has been rewarded by the chief minister. He was appointed metropolitan commissioner of MMRDA on Friday. The post had been lying vacant after the government appointed former commissioner Suresh Joshi as the state’s chief information officer.

“Rane and Kamat had joined hands to oust Chandrashekhar from MMRDA. Removing him would have sent a wrong message about a body that is headed by the chief minister himself,” a Congress minister close to Mr Deshmukh said. The chief minister is the de facto chairman of MMRDA.