Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Dec 31: On the last day of the year, the state government finally announced the appointment of a commissioner for Mangalore City Corporation, a post that was lying vacant for the past many months.

27-year-old Hephsiba Rani Korlapati has been appointed the new commissioner of MCC.

Hephsiba is from Basavakalyan in Bidar district but hails from Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh. She is an IAS officer of the 2011 batch.

She secured the 20th rank in IAS. She has served as assistant commissioner of Basavakalyana sub-division in Bidar district.

Hephsiba did her BA from Osmania University, Hyderabad and MA in Geography from Delhi School of Economics.

She will take charge of new post on Thursday January 1, 2015.

The non-appointment of MCC commissioner had become a contentious issue with the opposition stalling several MCC meetings and BJP members staging repeated protests in public. In mid-2014, Ajit Kumar Hegde Shanadi, the earlier MCC commissioner, was sent on training to Hyderabad and H Prasanna appointed in his place. However, reportedly due to political conflicts, Prasanna was transferred soon after taking charge and Ajit Hegde was re-appointed. But his appointment was not given official nod from the government. Meanwhile, Gokul Nayak functioned as the interim MCC commissioner.