Gurgaon: Within hours of transferring MCG commissioner Pradeep Dahiya and appointing him Rohtak deputy commissioner, the Haryana govt did a U-turn on Friday and reinstated the 2013-batch IAS officer at the helm of the civic body.The order reappointing Dahiya, at the end of his 15-month tenure, was issued before a replacement could be announced, marking an unusual rollback in the state’s IAS transfers and postings. The govt had not named his successor at the time, with officials indicating that another order would follow as part of a wider bureaucratic reshuffle. No reason was cited for either the original transfer or the reversal. Dahiya took over on May 5 last year.The move comes amid intense criticism of the city’s monsoon preparedness, after waterlogging and traffic jams crippled it this week, forcing police and administration to issue work-from-home advisories. Soon after the initial transfer order was issued, speculation gained ground that Dahiya’s removal was linked to the civic body’s handling of the monsoon and mounting criticism over repeated flooding despite claims of extensive pre-monsoon preparedness. Officials, however, maintained that the earlier transfer was part of a routine reshuffle and did not officially link it to the waterlogging crisis.“My priorities currently are addressing the waterlogging concerns,” Dahiya said. Dahiya was set to replace Sachin Gupta as Rohtak DC. Gupta has been appointed Ambala DC and with the latest development, the post of Rohtak DC remains vacant.Dahiya, who took charge as MCG commissioner in May 2025, has overseen a series of technology-driven initiatives during his tenure, including AI-enabled property tax recovery systems, AI-based road audits, and administrative restructuring through a cluster-based governance model dividing the city into eight zones. The civic body also reported record property tax collections during this period.With the latest order, Dahiya will continue to head one of Haryana’s most closely watched municipal corporations, even as MCG faces pressure to address monsoon-related failures, improve civic services, and defend its preparedness claims in the wake of another season of widespread waterlogging.
