Mhada VP shunted to please builders

MUMBAI: Bureaucrat U P S Madan, who antagonised several influential private developers, was finally shunted out of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) by the Democratic Front government on Monday.
In another reshuffle, additional chief secretary Nandlal, who was tipped to become the state home secretary, has been instead sent to the planning department.
His investigation into the corruption charges in the Thane, Nagpur, Ulhasnagar and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations in 1997-''99 led to the arrests of several corporators.
Mr Madan had barely served 17 months as vice-president of Mhada and was widely perceived to be doing a good job in shoring up the housing board''s revenues when some builders lobbied with the government to get him removed.
He has now been given an insignificant posting in the general administration department. Former exise commissioner A Ramakrishnan will take over from Mr Madan in Mhada.
Sources said Mr Madan, an IAS officer from the 1983 batch, had successfully scuttled this builder''s attempt to grab prime Mhada plot in Bandra Reclamation.
Urban development secretary Subhash Lalla will move to the chief minister''s office in place of Johny Joseph,who will be Mumbai''s next municipal commissioner.