It's rare that a senior IAS officer works under junior chief secretary. But in Rajasthan two senior IAS officers agreed to work under junior chief secretary.
One of them was Subodh Agarwal, a 1988 batch officer and the other was P K Goyal, also a 1988 batch, who is now a member of Rajasthan State Farmers Debt Relief Commission (RSFDRC) after he retired in January this year.
In November 20, 2020, when Niranjan Arya, a 1989 batch IAS was made chief secretary superseding 10 officers, all officers senior to Arya including Subodh Agarwal were sent out of secretariat postings.
Subodh Agarwal, a 1988 batch officer, was made chairman and managing director of Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Limited (RRECL).
Few months later, Subodh Agarwal requested mainstream posting and agreed to work under a junior chief secretary.
In April 2021, he was brought back in secretariat as additional chief secretary mines and petroleum.
Gradually his portfolio got richer with energy and water departments also coming into his fold.
Later, energy department was divested of from him and in the month of May this year, mines department was also taken back after complaints of irregularities and corruption in the department.
Ever since reports of irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission have come up, there were strong rumours that Subodh Agarwal will come under the radar of ED.
The ED in the early morning today started conducting raids at office and residence of Subodh Agarwal in relation with Jal Jeevan Mission scam. The name of Agarwal came up when ED had conducted raids at property dealer Kalyan Singh Kaviya and retired RAS officer Amitabh Kaushik, who were said to be acting as middlemen. The ED had recovered cash Rs 2.5 crore and brick of gold in that search. Since then it was just matter of time and collection of evidences for taking Subodh Agarwal into the grip.
Sources said that there have been complaints about irregularities and Agrawal's working related to mining also when Agarwal was helming the mining department.
Also read : ED conducts raids at senior IAS officer Subodh Agrawal in Jal Jeevan Mission scam
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