Senior IAS officer Sajjan Singh Yadav on Tuesday was appointed as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The officer, who has served as the DJB CEO before, was pushed into the spotlight in 2023 after it was reported that he was living in the heart of the country’s diplomatic enclave in a bungalow whose construction he had cleared during his earlier term.DJB chief Sajjan Singh YadavThe order issued by the services department said Yadav was appointed in place of IAS officer Kaushal Raj Sharma, who was posted as secretary to the Delhi lieutenant governor in April earlier this year.Yadav, a 1995-batch officer of the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, has also been given charge as additional chief secretary (industries) and chairperson (DSIIDC), relieving senior officer Santosh D Vaidya from these additional charges.Yadav had been special secretary in the department of expenditure, New Delhi, since April 1.In 2023, HT had reported that Yadav was the sole occupant of a bungalow on a prime parcel of land in the lush Nehru Park. The 2015 proposal that made the unit possible was signed off on by Yadav. It asked the organisation to demolish six old quarters and instead build a Type-6 bungalow, reserved usually for the highest echelons of the bureaucracy, and four smaller units,at a cost of ₹3.25 crore. While there were no legal or technical violations, the unusual chain of events had reinforced the perception of entitlement that some bureaucrats appear to carry; particularly since it came at a time when another DJB chief was found to have allegedly razed a 15th-century monument to build himself a mansion.At the time, Yadav had confirmed the development, saying, “As DJB CEO I had granted administrative approval for over 100 projects during my tenure and this project was one of them.”He further added, “There are around 100 such bungalows…allotted to officers as per their eligibility. It is likely that the permission to construct/repair many of them was given by the officers who are living or have lived in these bungalows.”He the DJB CEO from April 22 to October 27 in 2015.At the Centre, Yadav has worked at the finance ministry, health and family welfare, women and child development, heavy industry, and public enterprises and corporate affairs, including at the additional secretary and joint secretary levels.He has also served as mission director of the National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyan), director of the National Rural Health Mission, commissioner of food and supplies in Delhi, as well as VAT, excise, entertainment and luxury tax, and East Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner.Yadav earned his doctorate in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); master’s in public policy from the University of Minnesota, US; and MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.Yadav has authored books, including ‘Scaling Mount UPSC: Inspiring Stories of Young IAS Officers’ (2025) and ‘India’s Vaccine Growth Story: From Cowpox to Vaccine Maitri’ (2022).