MUMBAI, May 2: Bharatiya Janata Party leader in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Gopal Shetty has been made deputy mayor, putting paid to the plans of Sardar Tara Singh of the same party, who was reportedly keen on the post. The announcement came even as mayor Nandu Satam disclosed the names of the 11 members of the Council in the BMC - nine are from the Shiv Sena and two from the BJP. There are three women in the council apart from the deputy Speaker.At a press conference this afternoon, Satam announced the portfolios of the Council members. The octroi department, which is the major source of revenue for the corporation, has been retained by the mayor. The post of deputy Speaker has been given to Jaya Goythale of the Sena.Refuting charges that the BJP had demanded the deputy mayor's post, Satam said, ``We would have thought about it if the BJP had made such a demand to me.'' BJP leader Ramesh Medhekar later added that the decision regarding portfolios had been made by senior leaders in the partyand said that all the party corporators would stick to the decisions.Satam also said that municipal commissioner Girish Gokhale would not be transferred for the next six months. He added, ``I have requested Chief Minister Manohar Joshi not to transfer Gokhale as we need a hardworking and experienced commissioner. And Joshi has agreed to my demand.'' Satam said that the list of the Council members was handed over to him by Sena chief Bal Thackeray only this morning, but hastened to add that the list was prepared after taking all the BJP leaders into confidence. ``I had provided the bio-data of all the members, giving details of the various committees they worked for,'' added Satam.The names of the members with their portfolios are: Gopal Shetty - water supply and sewerage; Ram Mhatre - finance and planning; Arvind Nerker - Brihanmumbai electric supply and transport; Digambar Kandarkar - slum development and planning and properties; Sadhana Mane - education; Subhash Sawant - cleanliness; Suhasini Parab -roads and transport; Prabhakar Shinde - city engineering and power; Shraddha Jadhav - women and child welfare; Sardar Tara Singh - public health and hospitals; Rajesh Sharma - markets and garden. Satam has retained octroi, enquiry, public relations, civic research, printing press and administration departments.
