Sajjan Singh Yadav appointed Delhi’s VAT Commissioner

Amid the confrontation between the AAP government and the Centre over appointment of the VAT Commissioner, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung has appointed senior IAS officer Sajjan Singh Yadav to the post.

Yadav, who was the CEO of Delhi Jal Board, will succeed Vijay Kumar, whose transfer to Lakshadweep by Jung was slammed by the Delhi government.

The name of Yadav, a 1995-batch IAS officer, who was also the CEO of 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. 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 LG accusing him of “unlawfully” shooting down the government’s proposal of Garg’s appointment.