Considering the serious damage caused to the image of Manohar lal Khattar Government following the inept handling of nine-day Jat quota stir in Haryana, the State Government has now gone into damage control mode.
Following the failure of civil and police officials to contain violence in Rohtak, Panipat, Jhajjar and other districts of Haryana during Jat agitation, the State Government on Thursday transferred 8 HCS and 6 DSPs with immediate effect.
After promising strict action against officials who failed to maintain law and order situation in their areas, the Khattar Government issued orders of a major reshuffling in various violence-hit areas.
The State Government also appointed ADGP (Vigilance), BK Sinha as nodal investigation officer in addition to his present duties. He would collect all existing video recordings and all other evidence from both private and public sources that can pinpoint the damage that occurred to various public and private properties from February 14 to 23 throughout the state and that can establish nexus with the actual perpetrators of the damage as well as organisers of the event that precipitated the damage.
Police officers including Meham Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Surinder Singh, Rohtak DSP Sukhbir Singh, Gohana DSP Vinod Kumar among others have been transferred following their failure to control the worsening law and order situation during Jat quota stir.
DSP Surinder Singh and Gurdiyal Singh, DSP, State Crime Branch will swap their place of posting. DSP Sukhbir Singh and Shamsher Singh, DSP, State Crime Branch will swap their place of posting. DSP Vinod Kumar has been posted as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Faridabad and , First IRB Bhondsi DSP DSP Rajesh Kumar has been transferred to Gohana.
The Jat protests across Haryana, which crippled road and rail traffic in much of northern India and also caused a water crisis in Delhi, had left 28 people dead and more than 200 injured. As many as 127 persons have been arrested for indulging in violence and 535 cases have been registered till Wednesday.
As Jats went reportedly on a destruction spree with the Jat-dominated police merely watching, virtually everything came under attack, leaving behind burnt or destroyed schools, hotels, eateries, businesses, showrooms, shops as well as numerous vehicles, almost all belonging to non-Jats in Haryana.
The worst affected districts were Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Hisar. The properties worth crores were damaged by the violent agitators even as curfew was imposed in nine towns of the state. The State Government had also banned internet services for several days as the Jat quota stir turned violent.
According to the transfer orders issued, HCS Dharmender Singh, Sub Divisional Officer (Civil)-cum-Additional Collector, Gohana a has been posted as Managing Director, Cooperative Sugar Mills, Jind.
Meham SDM Veena Hooda has been posted as SDM -cum-Additional Collector, Siwani while HCS Ashwani Maingi, Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Panipat and City Magistrate, Panipat goes as SDM Gohana. Subhash Sheoran, Joint Commissioner, MC Ballabgarh is posted as City Magistrate, Panipat and Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Panipat while SDM Pehowa Narender Pal Malik goes as SDM Kaithal.
Amandeep Jain, General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Gurgaon and General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Faridabad is posted as Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Ballabgarh
HCS Shalini Chetal, SDM Siwani is posted as SDM Meham while Pooja Bharti, City Magistrate, Kurukshetra is given additional charge of SDM Pehowa. A day before, Haryana Government had constituted a one-man commission to probe into the alleged failure and inaction of civil and police officials during the Jat agitation which turned violent resulting in losses of hundreds of crores in the state. The Commission will submit the report within 45 days.
Haryana Government has appointed Prakash Singh, a retired IPS officer and recipient of Padma Shri, to inquire into the acts of omission and commission on part of all officers and officials of both Police and Civil Administration during the Jat Reservation agitation resulted in blockades of roads including national highways, violence and extensive damage to public and private properties in many districts. The experts have pegged the losses due to the Jat agitation at around Rs32,000 crore in the State.