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 Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of the 2005-batch Tukaram Mundhe has been appointed as the new Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. He took over the charge from the three months old incumbent Shridhar Dube Patil. Dube was posted as FDA commissioner in February this year.
Current Maharashtra FDA commissioner Shridhar Dube has now been shifted as the CEO of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Slum Rehabilitation Authority. Dube was managing director of Maharashtra State Co-operative Marketing Federation before joining as Maharashtra FDA Commissioner. Dube had replaced Rajesh Narvekar, an IAS officer of the 2009 batch.
In April this year, Mundhe was transferred as secretary of the disability welfare department and was appointed principal secretary in the disaster management, relief and rehabilitation department led by minister Girish Mahajan.
The Maharashtra government had appointed Rajesh Narvekar as the new Commissioner of the FDA, Maharashtra in the month of November, 2024. Narvekar assumed charge filling a post that had been vacant since August 2024, following the retirement of the former FDA Commissioner, Abhimanyu Kale.
Narvekar, a 2009-batch IAS officer had previously served as the Joint Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, as well as the Collector of Thane district. Before his appointment as the Maharashtra FDA Commissioner, he held the position of Commissioner of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).
There are certain key tasks for the new Maharashtra FDA Commissioner like addressing manpower shortages and upgradation of the infrastructure of FDA labs in Maharashtra among others. Out of 200 sanctioned posts for drug inspectors, only 55 inspectors are currently deployed in the field. The remaining 145 positions lie vacant. To address this, the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) has already initiated recruitment for 154 new drug inspectors through a recently floated advertisement.
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