In a huge development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has sacked the Mumbai civic body chief amidst rising COVID-19 deaths in the financial capital of India. In a major reshuffle, Thackeray on Friday announced that BMC chief Praveen Pardeshi had been removed from his post with immediate effect and replaced by another civil servant Iqbal Singh Chahal.
Pardeshi has been sent to the urban development department of the Maharashtra government where Chahal was posted as a principal secretary. Chahal has been working as the principal secretary in the urban development department since February this year.
Mumbai has become the worst-hit Indian state by the coronavirus pandemic with the city’s tally of COVID-19 patients growing to 11,967 with 748 new cases. The COVID-19 death toll in the city has now climbed to 462 with 25 more fatalities reported in the last 24 hours.
The state government had come under plenty of criticism from the opposition BJP recently after a video of COVID-19 patients being forced to receive treatment next to dead bodies in BMC-run Sion hospital went viral.
The coronavirus pandemic has been wreaking havoc across Maharashtra with the state reporting 694 deaths and more than 20,000 positive cases. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope tweeted on Friday evening, “The current count of COVID19 patients in the state of Maharashtra is 19063. Today, newly 1089 patients have been identified as positive for Covid. Also newly 169 patients have been cured, totally 3470 Covid19 patients have been cured and discharged from the respective hospitals.”
The current count of COVID19 patients in the state of Maharashtra is 19063. Today, newly 1089 patients have been identified as positive for Covid. Also newly 169 patients have been cured, totally 3470 Covid19 patients have been cured and discharged from the respective hospitals.
— Rajesh Tope (@rajeshtope11) May 8, 2020
Tope has, however, express confidence that the COVID-19 situation in Mumbai will see a significant improvement in the next 15-20 days.
