Before taking up the baton, IAS Dr Praveen Gedam (right) greets the outgoing Divisional Commissioner Radhakrishna Game with a bouquet. (Pic: DGIPR/Special Arrangement)
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 2002 batch Dr Praveen Gedam, who unearthed the infamous Jalgaon Housing Scam back in 2006 by taking head on the mighty Khandesh Builders as the then Jalgaon Municipal Commissioner, assumed the office of Nashik Divisional Commissioner on May 31. With this, the outgoing Divisional Commissioner Radhakrishna Game hung up his hat as he completed 37 long years of service in the Revenue Department.
The Jalgaon Housing Scam in which Suresh Dada Jain of the undivided Shiv Sena and Gulabrao Deokar of the undivided NCP were the prime accused had been estimated to be of Rs 110 crore in which funds meant for building housing for the poor were misappropriated. Both Jain and Deokar were convicted by a sessions court in 2019.
In October 2023, Dr Gedam took the charge of Commissioner, Agriculture, whose headquarters is in Pune. However, in less than a year he has been shifted again and now saddled with the responsibility of Nashik Divisional Commissioner. Dr Gedam in his capacity as a noted Administrator has had held several key positions both at the state as well as the Central government departments.
In May 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, Dr Gedam as Additional CEO of the National Health Authority ensured the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat Health services reached to as large number of poor beneficiaries as possible. He has had the privilege of being the first Mission Director of the Ayushman Bharat health services.
In 2017, he was taken up by the Union Government on deputation and was assigned the responsibility of the Private Secretary to Piyush Goyal, the then Union Cabinet Minister for Railways. He did MBBS at the Government Medical College, Nagpur. He holds a Master of Public Health from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health as a Fulbright Scholar.
In his earlier postings, Dr Gedam has worked as CEO of Latur Zilla Parishad, Osmanabad District Collector, Solapur District Collector, Nashik Municipal Corporation Commissioner, Maharashtra Transport Commissioner, and Director of Ground Water Surveys and Development Authority.
