Jaiswal is first IAS officer to be caught in ED crosshairs

MUMBAI: Senior bureaucrats were surprised after they came to know that veteran IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate for his role as additional municipal commissioner from May 9, 2020 to June 7, 2021. Jaiswal, an IAS officer of the 1996 batch, is the first IAS officer to have come under ED’s lens in connection with the Covid-19 field hospital contract scam.
Most IAS officers felt that it was too early to comment on the ED’s action. “We will have to wait for ED’s conclusion,” a senior bureaucrat said. A retired bureaucrat said that it will have to be examined if Jaiswal had the final authority for taking any decision about field hospitals or it required the approval of the municipal commissioner.
Jaiswal has held several key assignments in the past, including those of Nagpur and Thane municipal commissioner, secretary to then deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal, principal secretary of the water resources department. Later he was in BMC, and he is now the vice-chairman and MD of Mhada, which is considered one of the most prestigious assignments.