Mumbai, Aug 6 Two senior IAS officers on Wednesday were appointed as the General Manager of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), mainly due to a lack of coordination between the departments led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and another by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
However, the opposition has slammed the government, accusing it of a “turf war.”
The Shinde-led Urban Development Department issued an order 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.
Officials from UD or GAD did not reply to the queries over the lack of communication between the departments.
"Ideally, an order for appointment is issued by the GAD. In some cases, the department secretary issues the order, but the file has to be approved by the Chief Minister. I don't know what happened in this case," said a senior officer from the GAD.
Initially, Joshi, a 2006-batch IAS officer from the Maharashtra cadre, was announced to take over the position on an additional charge following the retirement of former GM S V R Srinivas. However, that decision was abruptly reversed.
Sharma, who is currently the Commissioner of Goods and Services Taxes (GST), Maharashtra, will take the additional charge as the GM of BEST until a regular appointment is finalised by the state government.
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.
An initial order to appoint Harshdeep Kamble as GM was later withdrawn without explanation. Before this, Srinivas had taken over as the GM in an additional capacity in February 2025.
BEST, which operates Mumbai’s public bus services, continues to face mounting challenges, including financial strain, an ageing fleet in need of modernisation, and concerns over service reliability and efficiency.
The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking operates one of the largest public transport networks in Mumbai, serving more than 2.5 million commuters daily across the city and its suburbs. The undertaking plays a crucial role in the city’s daily commute. In addition, BEST is also engaged in the electricity distribution to consumers.
Meanwhile, the opposition has slammed the government over the appointment of two IAS officers as BEST GM.
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 that “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.”
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