Please don’t turn our ward into a laboratory!” This was the demand of Matunga and Wadala residents who gathered for a silent protest outside the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) F North ward office. The protest was against the transfer of Assistant Municipal Commissioner Nitin Shukla, who was removed just one and a half months after his appointment.

Payel Shah, a resident of Sion, voiced her frustration: “In the last two years, we have seen three assistant municipal commissioners come and go. Ideally, an officer should serve a minimum of three years. Chakrapani Alle worked in the ward from April 2023 to June 2024, Prithviraj Chauhan from June 2024 to February 2025, and then Nitin Shukla was appointed on February 5, only to be transferred last week. What is this? Our ward is not a laboratory for BMC’s experiments! We demand that Shukla be reinstated.”