As Coronavirus cases still rise within the city, the civic body has decided to appoint an IAS officer for every of the city's seven zones. The officers need to improve the doubling rate of positive cases from the present 10 days to twenty days by May 17.

There were reports about differences of opinions as nobody was assigned a selected work area. Now, with each officer liable for a smaller area, the administration is predicted to be smoother. The BMC had six IAS officers, including the municipal commissioner, to run the varied departments. The State assigned four more senior ones — three for the civic body and one for the four state-run hospitals — to boost management. In spite of years of experience, there have been disagreements among officers and therefore the result was seen within the handling of the pandemic. Sources said that some IAS officers expressed dissatisfaction over the management.

BMC chief till Friday evening, Praveen Pardeshi's order is predicted to enhance administration and accountability. Each of the city's zones is headed by a Deputy Municipal Commissioner. The newly-assigned officers need to visit their zones a day from morning to 2 pm and be in office till 3 pm. The civic chief is to conduct daily debriefing at 6 pm with specializing in reducing the doubling rate.

Meanwhile, facing a huge shortage of staff, the BMC has decided to rope in suspended officials for Covid-19 work. Those officers and staff who had been suspended or face inquiries for negligence, corruption and other violations like a dereliction of duty will now be asked to resume work.

The pending inquiries are going to be placed on hold for a couple of months. While many of the officers are going to be on Covid-19 duty, others are going to be involved in pre-monsoon preparations like road repair and cleaning of nullahs.

According to officials, there are around 30 BMC staffers who are currently under suspension. “There may be a big shortage of staff. Even the officials who are working are tired and facing fatigue. So every additional man is vital. There are around 30 officials under suspension. a number of them are senior officials and if they join, it'll increase the manpower pool,” said a senior civic official. The BMC is the largest employer within the city with over 1 lakh employees on its rolls. With the Covid-19 crisis hitting hard, most employees are a part of the Covid-19 response team.