Fatehabad Superintendent of Police (SP) and IPS officer Sangeeta Kalia has been removed from her post and transferred, after a verbal spat with Haryana health minister Anil Vij during a meeting.
Vij had a verbal spat with the woman SP on Friday after the former asked her to ‘get out’ of a meeting. According to reports, Vij himself walked out of the meeting hall in the Panchayat Bhawan when Kalia refused to leave.
The ugly confrontation took place during a meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee.
Vij later told the media that he would bring the matter to the notice of the Chief Minister and the DGP. He added that he would not attend any meeting in the future where the officer is present.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday condemned Vij’s argument with the lady IPS officer and said it shows the arrogance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“This shows the arrogance of the BJP. If their arrogance is not checked, this will continue,” Singh told ANI in Bhopal.
Meanwhile, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and social activist Amitabh Thakur lauded the lady officer for keeping the dignity of the uniform and expressed his ire over the minister?s unwarranted behavior. “The way Haryana Minister scolded a young IPS officer again establishes the fact how senior officers are being humiliated by many politicians because they feel that they have all the authority and power,?” Thakur told ANI.
“I salute this young IPS lady officer, who showed the dignity of our office. She showed that if an officer wants he or she can disagree with a politician in their own way. At the same time, there are many officers who abandon this position and just go after the politicians, which makes bureaucracy crumble,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday condemned state’s Health Minister Anil Vij’s public argument with a lady IPS officer and said those holding a high position should make responsible statements and maintain a level of dignity.
“Any person who is sitting in a high position should talk responsibly whether it?s a worker or a minister. A dignity should be maintained. This kind of public argument with a lady officer portrays things in the negative and it also affects the administration. The minister should be more careful and responsible especially if there is a lady officer,” he told ANI.
Meanhile, his son and Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda dubbed Vij’s public spat with the lady officer as frustration of the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana Government as a result of its failure on all fronts.
“This is a very unfortunate and shameful act of the Haryana minister. Bureaucracy is an important structure of any government. Having failed on all fronts, the Khattar Government has resorted to take out their frustrations on the state bureaucracy. A glimpse of ?Beti Bachao Beti Padhao? could be seen when a very senior minister is seen taking out his anger and frustration on a senior lady IPS officer. This is highly condemnable,” he said.
ANI