In a span of less than nine years, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has got its ninth civic chief, this time in the form of IAS officer- Dr. Vijay Rathod who took over the reins of the administration from outgoing commissioner- Chandrakant Dange at the main administrative building in Bhayandar on Thursday afternoon.
The 2014 batch IAS officer, who earlier served as Assistant Collector and Project Officer for Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDB), Dr. Rathod was currently posted as chief executive officer (CEO) of Gachiroli Zilla Parishad.
Dange who is also an IAS officer holding an M.Tech degree, was amongst the four civic chiefs who were shunted out by the state government authorities amid spiraling cases of Covid-19 in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
Three of the four newly appointed civic chief’s including Dr. Vijay Rathod has a medical background. Although the coronagraph of the twin-city has been witnessing an upward trend due to its proximity to Mumbai, Dange strived hard to control and contain the pandemic. Notably, Dange whose tenure lasted barely four months had flatly refused to dive into the pool of succumbing to the political pressure exerted on him by some greedy politicians for their personal illegitimate work, which is said to be the main reason for his unceremonious transfer.
Moreover, alike Dange, none of the upright IAS officers have been given an opportunity of completing their term in the MBMC for the past nine years despite their dedicated work and unblemished track record.