New Delhi: Amid the confrontation between the AAP government and the Centre over the appointment of the VAT commissioner, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung today appointed senior IAS officer Sajjan Singh Yadav to the post.
The name of Yadav, a 1995 batch IAS officer, who was also the CEO of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), was proposed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. IAS officer Keshav Chandra will replace Yadav as the new DJB CEO.
“LG has accorded approval to the CM's proposal of appointing S S Yadav as new Vat Commissioner and Keshav Chandra as CEO of DJB since both the officers fulfil the required criteria of seniority,” said an official.
Chandra will also have additional charge of Secretary (Toursim).
The city government had locked horns with the Centre after Jung issued a relieving order to former VAT chief Vijay Kumar and asked him to join his new assignment in Lakshadweep.
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The LG's move had prompted the AAP dispensation to accuse the central government of transferring Kumar under “pressure of lobbyists” against whom Kumar had taken action for tax evasion.
“Centre did not consult the city government before transferring Kumar who had cracked the whip on big tax evaders...his transfer could have been possibly pressurised by a lobby of such persons,” AAP minister Manish Sisodia had said while asking whether an elected government could not even choose its VAT commissioner.
Later, the AAP government had sent a proposal of appointing 2002 batch IAS officer Ankur Garg as the city's new VAT commissioner, but Jung had turned it down, saying that he was junior to hold the key post.
Thereafter, Sisodia had written to the Lt Governor accusing him of “unlawfully” shooting down the government's proposal of Garg's appointment.
