Controversial MMRCL officer Ashwini Bhide who criticized Aarey protest gets transferred

ShivSena supremo and Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray has appointed Ranjit Singh Deol in her replacement, the officials said

Mumbai: Ashwin Bhide the Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), recently got transferred on January 21 in a reshuffle of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in Maharashtra, said, the officials.

ShivSena supremo and Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray has appointed Ranjit Singh Deol in her replacement, the officials said. Currently, Deol is the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). Deol is an IAS officer of 1998 batch, and like Bhide, belongs to Maharashtra cadre.

In year 2019, during the stir against cutting of trees for Aarey metro car shed, ShivSena leader Aaditya Thackeray had asked Bhide’s transfer for not heeding the opposition to tree felling in Aarey Colony for Mumbai metro’s car shed.

Aditya Thackeray also questioned the stand taken by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s (MMRCL) that there can’t be metro for Mumbai if the land was not made available in the forested Aarey Colony

The earlier BJP-led state government in Maharashtra planned to cut about 2,700 trees in Aarey Colony in north Mumbai for car shed of the metro had green activists and citizens’ groups up in the arms.

Ashwin Bhide had said that it was impossible to build the car shed anywhere else as suggested by green activists.

“The MMRCL officer is not only disrespecting the elected representatives but also citizens of Mumbai but her remarks also seem to threaten the common man and the courts,” Aaditya Thackeray, who is now a minister in the state government, had said.

In November 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had announced a stay on the construction of the car shed. He had, later on, clarified that he had not stayed the work of the Mumbai metro rail project itself.