Ajay Mehta, from the 1984 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) batch, took over from Dattaji Desai, who retired in August. Desai's post was temporarily filled by DMC Shahu Dange, who was widely tipped in civic circles to be formally appointed.

Mehta was formerly secretary to deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde. He recently returned from the United Kingdom after completing a year-long Master in Business Administration course from Glasgow. He has also been municipal commissioner of Nashik and collector of Ahmednagar.

The Congress accused the Mayor-in-Council of going back on its promise on the floor of the house to desist from filling the posts of Assistant Municipal commissioners and Municipal commissioner with IAS officers.

Earlier, opposition member Kisan Jadhav had charged Chief Minister ManoharJoshi of ignoring the existing pool of talent in the BMC and filling posts with his own appointees. Ravindra Pawar had also charged that backward classes were being cold-shouldered for the post.

On Friday, Pawar said the Congress would take a delegation to meet the CM and ask him to remove Mehta from the post. Till date, two other posts have also been filled by IAS officers, ignoring those eligible in the BMC, he stated.

Although Mehta's official designation is joint commissioner/DMC (Improvements), as per the BMC Act, the post of joint commissioner is honorary, while that for deputy commissioner is statutory. The post he has filled is considered a plum one, which covers a slew of administrative projects concerning land and civic properties, many of which overlap with the state government's housing projects.

Describing Mehta's appointment as a `good thing', Mayor Nandu Satam stated: ``After Dattaji Desai, there is nobody in the BMC who has the ability to shoulder the responsibility associated with thepost, study projects and bring in revenue and profits. Mehta is perfectly capable of delivering the goods.'' Appointing someone from the BMC cadre would have led to infighting, claimed Satam.

Deputy mayor Gopal Shetty stated that the appointment had been made by the municipal commissioner. ``The Bharatiya Janata Party is of the opinion that too many IAS officers should not be brought in except at the highest levels of the civic body,'' he stated.

Added his colleague Sardar Tara Singh: ``There are already five deputy municipal commissioners. And after the MiC has been set up with 12 departments and individual heads, there is no need for any more. There is also no need to bring in Mehta, who has no idea of the city,'' he stated.

39-year-old Mehta, who spoke to Express Newsline hours after he took charge, preferred to give the controversy the go-by, instead getting down to a briefing on projects in the pipeline, including the Rs 450 crore Tulsiwadi Slum Re-Development Scheme. ``The challenges posedby the corporation will be diverse vis-a-vis the demands,'' he stated.