Gurugram: Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has resumed his official work in the department after Dr Sonia Trikha Khullar stepped down as director general of health services (DGHS). She is the wife of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s chief principal secretary, Rajesh Khullar.
Vij had been missing in action from the state health department since October over alleged interference by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in the department’s functioning.
Khullar applied for voluntary retirement Monday and it was approved by the state government the same day. Within hours, she was appointed a member of the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC).
The 56-year-old took the oath of office and secrecy as a member of the HPSC at the Haryana Raj Bhawan Tuesday. Governor Bandaru Dattatreya administered the oath.
Sources in the government told ThePrint that since the term of an HPSC member is six years or the age of 62, whichever is earlier, Khullar will get a complete term of six years.
After Khullar was sworn in, the government’s information and public relations department released a note praising her contributions to healthcare in the state. It referred to her “pivotal role” in overseeing facilities and “extensive leadership” as DGHS and in previous posts. It also lauded her role in the “establishment of specialised COVID-19 emergency departments and ICUs in secondary care facilities”.
Vij had stopped clearing files of the state health department since 5 October, the day a review meeting of the department was held by Rajesh Khullar, allegedly without keeping the minister in the loop. Sonia Khullar was in attendance at the review.
A meeting between Khattar and Vij, who is also the Haryana home minister, last month failed to end the deadlock between the two.
According to government sources, Khattar again met Vij Saturday and the latter agreed to take up his work again in the health department after the “CM offered to shift Sonia Khullar and National Health Mission Director Rajnarayan Kaushik from their posts”.
Sources said Vij had hinted at staying away from the winter session of the Haryana Assembly, beginning Friday, if no solution was found to the issues raised by him by then.
A source also said that “24 questions related to the health department have been submitted to the assembly by various MLAs for question hour”.
“Had no solution been found, it could have led to a lot of embarrassment to the government as Vij would not have been present to answer the questions,” the source added.
Contacted by ThePrint Tuesday, Vij refused to comment on the issue.
However, sources close to him said that on Monday, he cleared all 300-odd files which had been pending in the health department for the past two months.
“These were all routine files. Important files such as one regarding the recruitment of drug control officers were cleared by the minister in the middle of his displeasure with the CMO,” said one of the sources.
‘People of the state were being allowed to suffer’
The two-month standoff between Khattar and one of his senior-most cabinet ministers had drawn criticism from the opposition.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh last week, former CM and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda took a dig at the tussle between Khattar and Vij and said the people of Haryana were suffering because of it.
“The functioning of the health department and the situation of law and order is in shambles in Haryana. The tussle between the CM and Anil Vij is making it worse,” Hooda had said.
He alleged that Vij was being treated unfairly by Khattar, pointing to how the criminal investigation department was taken away by the CM from under the home department (held by Vij).
Bharat Bhushan Batra, chief whip of the Congress, told ThePrint Tuesday that the party would raise the matter during zero hour in the assembly.
“We will ask the government how the people of the state were being allowed to suffer because of infighting between the CM and a minister,” said Batra.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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