A bungalow in Malabar Hill owned by the BMC has been allotted to BJP minister Ashish Shelar after he surrendered the state accommodation provided to him near Mantralaya.
The bungalow, which has been in the news since last decade, has a scenic view and is located next to the Phirozshah Mehta Garden nestled above the Malabar Hill reservoir. It has been occupied by retired IAS officer Praveen Singh Pardeshi, who also served as the BMC commissioner a few years ago.
Pardeshi will now occupy Ratna Sindhu, a bungalow near Mantralaya.
The BMC accommodation was constructed for the hydraulic engineer that heads the city water supply management. But rarely have engineers occupied the two bungalows located side by side. They have always been allotted to the additional municipal commissioners (AMCs) deputed by the state government.
The BMC bungalow was in the headlines when the government decided to allot it to Pravin Darade, who was secretary to Devendra Fadnavis during his first term between 2014 and 2019. During the same period Darade was appointed in the BMC as the AMC. But when he did not vacate it even after he was transferred back to the state government, it attracted media attention.
The bungalow was vacated only after the Uddhav Thackeray-led government came to power in late 2019 and allotted it to Congress minister Aslam Shaikh.
After Shaikh vacated it in July 2022 it was allocated to Pardeshi, even though he was neither in the BMC nor in the state cadre service. The allotment was done on the basis of Pardeshi’s appointment as the CEO of MITRA, the state body set up on the lines of NITI Aayog.
