The Haryana government has appointed Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Pradeep Dahiya as Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) during the late-night bureaucratic reshuffle on Tuesday. The 2013-batch officer was previously the deputy commissioner (DC) of Jhajjar district. Dahiya has also served as the deputy commissioner of the Nuh, Kaithal and Hisar districts of the state.
He was also the administrator (headquarters) of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) in Panchkula and has served as additional director of the Urban Estate Department. The former MCG Commissioner, Ashok Garg, will now be the Divisional Commissioner in Hisar, while Swapnil Ravindra Patil, additional commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad, will be the new Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner.
Garg was facing controversies after the appointment of Gurugram Mayor Raj Rani Malhotra’s husband as an advisor on April 21. The move drew controversy, including from the Congress, and as a result appointment was withdrawn on April 29. The second controversy came to the fore after a few hours of heavy rain on Friday morning led to heavy waterlogging, leaving several major stretches flooded and uprooted trees. Haryana cabinet minister Rao Narbir Singh himself visited the waterlogged spot to take stock of the MCG region and express dissatisfaction against MCG officials.
The minister had visited visited Sikandarpur, Sector 27, 28, 43, 51, 54, 56, Shiv Nadar School Road, Wazirabad, Artemis Hospital Red Light, Mayfield Garden, Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Marble Market Sector 34, Hero Honda Chowk, Narsinghpur, Manesar Drain, Gadoli Culvert, Basai Chowk, Mata Road, Old Delhi Road, Sector 31 Atlantis Road and Rajiv Chowk and directed Corporation Commissioner Ashok Garg and GMDA officials to fix the responsibility of one officer at each identified waterlogging spot in Gurugram so that if situation arises, necessary action can be taken.