IAS officer Chakravarti Singh Rathore took charge as Commissioner of the Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC) here on Thursday.
He was given a reception by Sub-Collector Sidhartha Sankar Swain, BMC Deputy Commissioner Sourindra Kumar Routray and all other BMC officials.
Prior to this, Rathore was serving as the Sub-Collector, Jeypore. Significantly, Rathore is the second IAS to take over as BMC Commissioner only next to his predecessor Nikhil Pawan Kalyan, who was transferred as Dhenkanal district Collector.
A few days back “Forum for Ganjam” convenor Sudir Rout had urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to post an able IAS officer as BMC Commissioner so that ongoing projects undertaken by Kalyan can be taken forward efficiently.
Interestingly, the State Government has transferred seven Commissioners in nine years of the BMC’s formation in 2008. The Then Municipality Chairman Shiv Shankar Das alias Pintu Das became the Mayor and Vice-Chairperson Sanjukta Samal as Deputy Mayor and the rest elected Councilors became Cooperators. Similarly, the then Executive Officer Bhim Manseth became the Commissioner. After the transfer of Manseth, senior OAS officers who were posted as Commissioners include Akshya Mohanty, Ajit Kumar Mishra, Anjana Panda, Manoj Mohanty and Sushant Kumar Mishra. Kalyan, the first IAS officer who took charge as Commissioner, remained in job for nine months only from April 28, 2017 to January 17, 2018.
The BMC receives huge amounts of grants from both the State and Union Governments for which the role of the Commissioner is quite crucial, said a senior citizen.
Now the sanitation and cleanliness of the city, including garbage management, is in a state of doldrums. Denizens use public roada as dumping yards, and drains are packed with garbage and debris.
The forum, a body of intellectuals and common citizens, has demanded that the new Commissioner set accountability on sanitation staff to keep drains and roads clean.