Chandigarh: This Saturday, Haryana Home minister Anil Vij made headlines by calling the Kaithal SP on the phone from his Janta Darbar in Ambala and asking, “Band kar doon thana kya main? (should I shut the police station?).” Vij was reacting to a video a 27-year-old woman complainant showed him during the darbar which featured a man accused of duping her of Rs 25 lakh having tea with cops at Pundari police station in Kaithal district. He went on to direct the SP to suspend the personnel in the video.
In another case he heard at the same darbar, the minister gave directions to suspend a police official in Panipat on the charges of demanding a bribe from ambulance drivers.
Despite losing two of his portfolios recently, Vij is continuing with his quick action on complaints reaching him through his Janta Darbars, suspending officials and police personnel.
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Crusader minister?
A retired senior bureaucrat said to ThePrint, “There is no denying that Vij was the most senior BJP leader when Manohar Lal Khattar was picked by the party’s top leadership to head the government in Haryana in 2014.
Since then, he has been trying to make his presence felt through such actions, causing embarrassment to the CM. Some of his suspension orders may be right, but many times, he is seen taking action after hearing only one side of the story. But since he is a very senior leader, even the CM seems helpless.”
Retired Haryana cadre IAS officer M.G. Devasahayam told ThePrint that though suspension per se is not a punishment, it causes a lot of embarrassment and humiliation to the official concerned. He said whether an employee needs to be suspended or not depends on the nature of the charge against them.
“If the charge is of such a nature that, if proven, it can lead to a major punishment, including dismissal from the service, only then an employee is suspended. The purpose of suspending an employee is to prevent them from tampering with the evidence. Suspending people at one’s whims is completely uncalled for,” he added.
ThePrint tried reaching out to Vij on the phone but the minister did not take the calls. This story will be updated if the minister responds.
Suspensions galore
Last Friday, Vij suspended two officials while hearing complaints at the Public Relations and Grievance Committee meeting at Hisar. He also ordered the suspension of the assistant registrar of cooperative society and a naib tehsildar. The complainant had alleged that the owner of the Hisar Scholar Housing Building Society had committed fraud with several people by selling the same plot to two or more persons. He alleged that while the society owner was missing, the economic offences cell of the Hisar police was yet to file a challan after the Assistant Registrar (AR) of Cooperative Societies got an FIR registered. When the investigating officer informed the minister that he had sought society records from the AR but had not heard from the latter, Vij ordered the AR’s suspension.
Likewise, he suspended a naib tehsildar in an alleged land fraud case for not checking documents carefully before registry of the plot.
Vij is known to come down heavily on officials against whom he receives complaints during his darbars, and this is how he has functioned since 2014, when he joined the state cabinet.
In 2015, Vij climbed onto the roof of Haryana Civil Secretariat to check whether water being supplied was clean and directed the concerned officers to take samples.
In 2019, Vij even reinstated a suspended woman ASI. While on his way to Delhi in December that year, Vij suspended the ASI in Panipat as she was absent from duty during one of his raids. But when she told him that she had gone to her house to use the washroom as the police station did not have a separate toilet for women personnel, Vij immediately revoked her suspension and ordered the construction of separate toilets for women in police stations across the state.
In February last year, Vij ordered the suspension of the entire staff posted at the Sukhpura check post in Rohtak for not registering a complaint filed by an advocate, according to a report. Later, when the personnel claimed the charges were baseless, the minister ordered an inquiry.
In October 2022, Vij conducted a surprise inspection of the municipal council office in Ambala Sadar and suspended four officials on complaint of irregularities. That same month, he ordered the suspension of two police personnel and the shifting of two station house officers in two separate cases, said another report.
On February 22, 2022, Vij directed Panipat SP to suspend eight cops posted in that district while listening to the public’s grievances at Ambala. Vij called for the suspension when Panipat resident Hira Lal Ahuja alleged that the eight cops – an inspector, a sub inspector, an assistant sub inspector, and five others posted at Chandni Bagh police station of Panipat – kidnapped his son Raj Kumar Ahuja from the court complex and demanded ransom.
A suspension is not a punishment. As retired IAS officer M.G. Devasahayam pointed out, “An inquiry begins and in most cases, the suspension is revoked within a month or so. But that it causes embarrassment to the officials concerned also cannot be denied.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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