Dr Vipin Itankar has been named as new Municipal Commissioner at Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) by Maharashtra Government on Thursday. He replaces Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari who has been transferred to Pune as Metropolitan Commissioner after having a tenure of over two and half years at NMC, most of which was in the capacity of Administrator. The new Municipal Commissioner will take the charge on Friday. Dr Itankar is presently working as District Collector at Nagpur itself and speculations about his posting as Municipal Commissioner were very strong in the administrative circles.

 

In Wednesday’s order, he was told to take over additional charge of Municipal Commissioner, but on Thursday, General Administration Department (GAD) modified and entrusted charge of Municipal Commissioner on full time basis. He has already completed his tenure as Collector and the posting order mentioned that Dr Itankar is to hold the additional charge of that post till regular officer is posted at District Collectorate. Incidentally, Dr Itankar is alumnus of Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Mayo Hospital (IGGMC&H) and is native of Chandrapur. In a way, Dr Itankar knows Nagpur city like the back of his palm and also has good relations with local leaders across the parties.

 

For Dr Itankar, the new task as Municipal Commissioner comes with many challenges on the administration front plus pulling out the civic body from the financial doldrums owing to very low tax rates and poor internal accruals. Although the favorable dispensation at State capital is in a way lifeline for the NMC, it is beneficiary of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ largesse owing to heavy financial backing for many big projects in city. Plus one more factor in funding big development projects here has been investment pulled in by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, especially in the infrastructure sector.