Mumbai: Maharashtra’s first woman election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan succumbed to COVID-19 at a Mumbai hospital on Thursday. She was 72.
The 1972 batch IAS officer was named the state election commissioner in 2009 after her stint as an additional chief secretary in the Revenue Department. Satyanarayan retired from her post in 2014, reported Mumbai Live.
Several politicians including Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Supriya Sule and Anil Parab took to Twitter pay tributes to Satyanarayan.
राज्याच्या पहिल्या महिला निवडणूक आयुक्त नीला सत्यनारायण यांचे निधन झाले.त्या कर्तव्यदक्ष अधिकारी होत्या याशिवाय एक संवेदनशील कवयत्री देखील होत्या.त्यांना भावपूर्ण श्रद्धांजली. pic.twitter.com/Wa2eEIS08f
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) July 16, 2020
Satyanarayan had also penned 23 books in different genres. Her Marathi novel ‘Rounn’ was adapted into a movie named ‘Judgement’.
She also fought against gender discrimination prevalent in the service sector.
Earlier on Saturday, Ashok Khairnar, assistant municipal commissioner (H-East ward) of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), died of coronavirus. He was reportedly infected while working on the field.
Maharashtra has the highest caseload of coronavirus among all the states in the country with 2,75,640 COVID-19 cases and the death toll at 10,928.
In Mumbai, the number of coronavirus cases has increased to 96,474 and nearly 5,467 fatalities have been reported so far.
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