Mumbai, Aug 6 (IANS) In the wake of a controversy over the appointment of two senior IAS officers as the BrihanMumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) general manager, the state Urban Development on late Wednesday evening issued a statement saying that ‘the orders regarding handing over the additional charge of the post of General Manager, BEST to Ashwini Joshi (IAS) have not been officially issued by the Urban Development Department.’

The statement said that on the initiative of the BEST Workers Union, it was planned to take out a march to ensure that the employees who have retired and are retiring from the service of BEST enterprises receive their gratuity amount immediately within the prescribed time.

“In this situation, it was necessary to give additional charge to the post of General Manager, BEST until regular orders are issued through the General Administration Department,” it said.

The statement added that, considering the order dated July 31, 2025, of the General Administration Department, action was being taken to issue an order through the Urban Development Department to hand over the additional charge of the post of General Manager, BEST, to Joshi in order to handle the workers’ union’s march.

“However, in the meantime, the additional charge of the post of General Manager, BEST was handed over to Ashish Sharma (IAS) by the General Administration Department as per the order dated August 05, 2025,” it said, claiming that no official order of Joshi was since issued.

Earlier, the opposition slammed the government over the appointment of two IAS officers as BEST GM, as they uploaded on social media the two separate signed orders.

The one order was by the Deputy Chief Minister Shinde-led Urban Development Department, giving additional charge to Ashwini Joshi as the GM.

Joshi is the Additional Municipal Commissioner in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Within hours, the General Administration Department (GAD)-led by Fadnavis issued an order, giving additional charge of the post to State GST commissioner Asheesh Sharma.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has been functioning without a full-time general manager since the beginning of the year. The previous full-time GM, Anil Diggikar, was transferred in December last year following the Kurla bus accident. Since then, the position has seen a series of temporary appointments, with senior IAS officers holding additional charge.

However, Shiv Sena UBT leader Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray in his post on X said, “So the BEST is being killed by the state government on purpose, but what is worse is the coordination between CM and Gaddaarnath Mindhe is already dead. CM’s GAD (The official dept for posts and transfers) has issued orders to one name as administrator, while the Gaddaarnath’s UD department has issued orders to another name. Shouldn’t the DCM have first discussed this with CM? Shouldn’t the GAD be issuing these orders? Why should our State suffer in this ego war?”

He further said, “Imagine, if this basic coordination is SO dead, these are the people who are supposed to be leading our State! The most corrupt and incompetent government that Maharashtra has seen.”

Further, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Harshwardhan Sapkal also rapped the government, saying, “1 post, 2 orders, 2 leaders, is this a double gang war of the double engine government?”

In his post on X, Sapkal said, “A gang war is ongoing between Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis over the transfer of officials. For a single post, appointments of two different officials are being made on the same day. Seeing this struggle to place people in lucrative positions, the public is left wondering whether it is a government or a turf war.”

The NCP SP legislator Rohit Pawar took a dig at the state government, saying the MahaYuti government’s “best coordination.”

In his reaction on X, he said: “As soon as the post of General Manager in BEST became vacant, it seems a race has begun between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Saheb and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Saheb to place ‘their’ person in this position. As soon as BEST’s General Manager, Shri Srinivas, retired yesterday, the Chief Minister’s General Administration Department assigned the additional charge to Ashish Sharma and issued an order accordingly, while the Urban Development Department under Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde assigned the same additional charge to Ashwini Joshi. By giving the additional charge of a single post to two officers, the tug-of-war within the Mahayuti alliance has come into the open, but now the attention of BEST employees is focused on when two chairs will be placed in a single cabin.”

The Leader of Opposition in the state council, Ambadas Danve, also criticised the MahaYuti government, saying that this is a simple example of the complete lack of coordination among the parties in the state government.

In his post on X, he claimed, “Thus is the competition between the departments of the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, who frequently visits Delhi, to appoint people to the post of BEST GM. If three partners of the MahaYuti cannot coordinate with each other, what welfare will they achieve for 11 crore people?” he asked.

–IANS

sj/dan