City son Dr Sanjay Mukherjee to be the new State Medical Education Secretary

By Vikas Vaidya

Probably for the first time the person from medical profession has been posted as Secretary of Department of Medical Education and Research of Maharashtra. This decision of Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis Government will bear the fruits for sure. The city son Dr Sanjay Mukherjee will take over as the Secretary on October 1 from Sanjay Deshmukh who too hailed from Nagpur. Deshmukh is retiring on September 30. Before taking charge as Secretary to Medical Education, Deshmukh too was Additional Municipal Commissioner.
Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, who was earlier serving as the Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), India. He was responsible for all the mega projects undertaken by the corporation, like the Mumbai Coastal Road Project, the Goregaon Mulund Link Road Project, Water Supply Projects like the Middle Vaitarna Dam Project, the Damanganaga Pinjal River Link Project, the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project, the Mumbai Sewerage Improvement Project, Mega Projects of Solid Waste, etc. He was responsible in resolving all the issues of these projects and commencing work thereon in a short period of over three  years. To mention a few, The Mumbai Coastal Road Project, which he streamlined and started was first pending since 1991. The Goregaon Mulund Link Road Project, work of which started last year, was pending since 1967. The Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Project, which commenced in August 16, was pending since 2005. The Land Reclamation of Mulund Dumping Ground, which commenced recently, was pending over a decade. All these projects are amongst the largest and most complex of its type in the world.
In addition to his role as the Project Man, he was responsible for the Water Supply to the city of Mumbai, management of the sewerage system, the entire financial and income side of MCGM, and coordination amongst the utilities of the city of Mumbai. Under his watch, MCGM has run a net surplus of around Rs 10,000 crore annually over the last three years and has doubled its capital expenditure. Under his watch, the net reserves of the corporation increased from Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 76,000 crore. He is credited with preparing the financial restructuring plan for BEST which has enabled the organization to ride over its acute cash crunch and provide services to the City of Mumbai.
Prior to this assignment, Dr Mukherjee served as the Commissioner of State Excise, Maharashtra, where he doubled the Excise Revenue from Rs. 5500 crore to Rs. 12,000 crore in a span of three years. His prior stint in Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) saw NIT emerging as the major Project Implementing Agency of Central India and also saw NIT becoming the planning authority of the Nagpur Metropolitan Region.
Dr Mukherjee has the experience of working in the field of Governance, Rural Infrastructure, Urban Infrastructure, Water Supply and Sanitation, Taxation and Finance over the last 22 years.
Sanjay Deshmukh, after bringing certain major changes in State Medical education tried to heighten up it. During the start of his tenure, Deshmukh visited almost all the Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals (GMCHs) in State to review the situation and was harsh enough while taking action. Once he visited Yavatmal’s Medical College and found that Dean was absent. Deshmukh immediately sent him on forced leave and Dr Manish Shrigiriwar became Dean. He did not spare very senior doctors from all the GMCH when he identified that they were involved in private practice. His actions made him becoming unpopular among some doctors and staff. According to some doctors, Deshmukh got fed up by the system and then maintained silence on all issues, it is learnt.