Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Tukaram Mundhe — the Commissioner of Maharashtra Meals and Drug Administration— is main an enormous crackdown towards meals and drug adulteration within the State. A number of institutions have been raided, shut down, and issued present trigger notices over the previous couple of months, with seizures and police complaints following. Many of those have loved an iconic standing for generations.
Mr. Mundhe, nonetheless, says he wouldn’t relent until he ensures protected meals and medicines for everybody within the State. Whereas the Bombay Excessive Court docket cautioned him towards ‘utilizing a sword to kill a mosquito’, a number of have lauded his effort.
Who’s Tukaram Mundhe?
Born right into a poor agricultural household in Beed in Maharashtra’s developmentally backlogged area of Marathwada, Mr. Mundhe says he grew up witnessing the implications of the federal government’s failure to ship on its welfare guarantees. Agricultural misery and debt have been a everlasting function of his life. He labored on his household’s subsistence farm and offered greens alongside his mother and father on the weekly market. He would get up at 2 a.m. to water the crops by hand. Rising up in a mud-brick home, he noticed his household’s dependence on monsoon and the influence of shortage of water. He walked barefoot to his native Zilla Parishad faculty.
He says he watched his household carry burdens imposed by the system and it impressed him to enter the executive companies.
He determined to enter the system, to not belong to it, however to alter it, he says.
With no teaching academy, no community, no household priority in public service, Mr. Mundhe cleared the UPSC exams in 2005 and ranked twentieth nationally. He was allotted the house cadre of Maharashtra.
Schooling
Mr. Mundhe accomplished his bachelor’s diploma from Authorities Faculty of Arts and Science in Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in 1996. In 1998, he accomplished his MA in Political Science from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada College.
He continued his tutorial pursuits after becoming a member of the civil companies, with a specific curiosity in fiscal coverage and monetary evaluation. He has accomplished programs in management, monetary market regulation, tax evaluation and income forecasting, fiscal coverage and macroeconomic administration, and catastrophe administration.
Awards and transfers
Over greater than 20 years of service, Mr. Mundhe has obtained a number of recognitions and awards for his administrative work. His method, nonetheless, has additionally made him unpopular within the system. He has been transferred 25 occasions in 21 years of service, and has not accomplished a full tenure in any of his postings. An IAS officer sometimes completes a tenure of round three years in a posting, whereas Mr. Mundhe has ceaselessly been transferred and, at occasions, stored and not using a posting.
He has obtained recognition for his work in water conservation, city governance, public well being, transport innovation and social inclusion. He obtained the Maharashtra authorities’s Greatest Collector Award for all-round excellence in district governance in 2015-16 and the Nationwide Award for Social Justice and Empowerment from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
He was additionally known as the “waterman of Maharashtra” for his work in water conservation. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Company obtained the SKOCH Order of Benefit for its e-toilets and seismic retrofitting initiatives throughout his tenure as Municipal Commissioner. In 2017, he obtained the Nationwide Award for the Greatest Built-in Site visitors Administration System.
Guiding rules
Early in his profession, Mr. Mundhe developed a three-point framework that he says has guided his selections ever since: each motion should be authorized, morally appropriate and within the public curiosity. “If any two circumstances are met — together with legality — I act. There isn’t any hesitation, no gradual method, no negotiation with what’s unsuitable just because it’s highly effective,” he says.
In his first discipline posting, he took on the sand mafia and obtained loss of life threats. In Solapur, the sand mafia allegedly tried to bodily get rid of him. He returned to work the following day and continued with the identical programme. On the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Restricted (PMPML), he sacked 158 contract drivers for continual absenteeism in 2017-18. The choice triggered opposition from unions and drew a robust political response. When he took over as Well being Commissioner in 2022, he ordered midnight inspections at Main Well being Centres, linked salaries to biometric attendance and initiated motion towards medical doctors allegedly operating personal clinics throughout authorities working hours. He was transferred in 2023.
Throughout his tenure as Municipal Commissioner of Navi Mumbai in 2016, three multi-crore initiatives had already been accepted, together with a ₹20-crore marble statue and a ₹163-crore photo voltaic venture at Morbe Dam. Mr. Mundhe cancelled each, calling them pointless, and redirected the funds in the direction of making town extra accessible to individuals with disabilities and enhancing civic infrastructure.
His “Stroll with the Commissioner” initiative additionally turned widespread. Each Sunday, he would go for a morning stroll and invite residents to affix him, giving them a chance to lift complaints, solutions and issues straight with him. The initiative, nonetheless, additionally introduced him into battle with elected representatives. Corporators throughout political events referred to as a bandh towards him, whereas residents launched an internet petition that garnered greater than 6,000 signatures and approached the Chief Minister searching for to stop his switch. He was moved out in 2017.
Wanting again, Mr. Mundhe says he’s ready to work with full capability in no matter function the federal government assigns him. In his present posting on the FDA, he’s not sure whether or not he’ll full the usual three-year tenure, however says he already has a protracted wishlist for cleansing up the system.
Revealed – August 15, 2026 07:06 pm IST
