BMC Additional Commissioner Ashwini Joshi’s transfer stayed over Maharashtra SIR duties

3 min readChandigarhUpdated: Jun 18, 2026 01:07 PM IST

The transfer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Additional Commissioner Ashwini Joshi has been temporarily stayed as she continues to oversee Maharashtra’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls (File photo).

The transfer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Additional Commissioner Ashwini Joshi was stayed Wednesday, the day after it was ordered, with officials citing her role in Maharashtra’s upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and the need for approval from the Election Commission of India before she can be relieved.

The IAS officer was transferred Tuesday and appointed Additional Metropolitan Commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

An official said Joshi is the authorised officer responsible for the electoral roll revision exercise. The official said that once the ECI approves her transfer, the stay will be lifted.

Due to the hold on Joshi’s transfer, Prajakta Verma, who was supposed to take her position, has also had her transfer delayed. The SIR process is scheduled to begin on June 29 in Mumbai and across the rest of the state.

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra government announced several significant IAS transfers. It appointed Vijay Singhal, the Vice Chairman and Managing Director (VCMD) of City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO), as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project in Mumbai.

In addition to Singhal’s appointment, the state government also announced several other important transfers.

P Velrasu (IAS: 2002) has been transferred from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to the post of Secretary (Forest), Revenue and Forest Department.

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Deependra Singh Kushwah (IAS: 2006) takes charge as CEO of MIDC.

Ashwin Mudgal (IAS: 2007) has been posted as VCMD, CIDCO.

Dr Kadambari Balkawade (IAS: 2010) has been appointed Development Commissioner (Industries).

Sanjay Katkar (IAS: SCS:2014) has been appointed Commissioner (Family Welfare) and Director, National Health Mission.

The timeline and stages of SIR in Maharashtra

June 20-29: Training of booth-level officers (BLOs) and printing of pre-filled enumeration forms.

June 30: Door-to-door verification and household data matching across the state.

August 5: Official publication of the draft electoral rolls.

August 5–September 4: Filing window for claims, updates, and voter list objections.

October 7: Publication of the finalised Maharashtra electoral rolls.

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Ahead of the SIR process, the ruling BJP held central cadre meetings, urging booth-level teams to rigorously audit lists to weed out “ineligible” citizens and correct duplications.

The Congress has demanded that the drive remain strictly an administrative voter-roll update and not become a backdoor citizenship-verification engine.