Mumbai: Amid repeated allegations of favouritism in the transfer of municipal engineers, the BMC is planning to introduce a software-based randomisation system to allocate postings for engineers, significantly reducing human intervention in the process.Civic officials said the proposed system, likely to be rolled out by October, will cover sub-engineers, junior engineers and assistant engineers. Data on the number of engineers due for transfer and vacancies across departments will be fed into the software, which will then automatically determine postings. Officials said the move is aimed at making the transfer process more transparent and addressing allegations that engineers are posted to preferred departments through influence or favouritism.Further the software is expected to incorporate departmental vacancy data, though the final parameters are still being worked out before the proposed rollout.“The software will allocate postings based on vacancies and transfer requirements, leaving little scope for manual intervention,” a senior official said, adding that the system is expected to help build confidence in the transfer process.However, BJP MLA Ameet Satam cautioned that while transparency is welcome, the system should not overlook departmental expertise. “It would not make sense to transfer an engineer who has worked in the water department for years to a completely unrelated department such as maintainence. Engineers develop specialised knowledge over time, and that expertise should be retained while making transfers,” Satam said.RTI activist Anil Galgali said that it was a welcome move. “If this goes online, any political or external pressure with regard to transfer of engineers could be curtailed to a large extent,” he said adding that when there is monetary transactions in transfers there’s always a fear that the officer may not deliver to the best of his/ her ability.In the last one year BMC has been embroiled in a series of “ transfer” related controversies regarding the postings of its civic engineers. For instance in October 2025 the BMC administration stayed the transfer of over 160 civic engineers across various departments. This occurred after Galgali and Satam had alleged that a “transfer market” was being operated by in the BMC, and money being charged for favorable postings and promotions.In May 2026 the transfer row resurfaced with BJP MLA Mihir Kotecha alleging that the transfer scam was attempting to make a comeback. He claimed that around 55 officials who were involved in the cancelled October 2025 transfer list were being assigned the same postings under the guise of routine administrative transfers. Kotecha, however, told TOI that while the move appears promising, the civic body has shown little intent to implement it transparently. “On July 19, I wrote to the BMC seeking details of engineer transfers over the past 10 years, including the names of officers, their departments, previous postings and new assignments. I received vague replies to this. So unless there is complete transparency in the transfer process, the cash-for-transfer scams that have surfaced in the past will continue,” he said.
