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Khattar-Vij tussle: Haryana health department head Dr Sonia Trikha to be appointed as HPSC member
Dr Sonia Trikha Khullar, who took over as the head of health services in 2022, will tender her resignation from the government service before she is appointed to the constitutional post
The Manohar Lal Khattar government has decided to appoint the Haryana director general health services (DGHS) Dr Sonia Trikha Khullar as a member of the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC).
Dr Khullar, who took over as the head of health services in 2022, will tender her resignation from the government service before she is appointed to the constitutional post. A vacancy in the commission had arisen following the end of Dr Pawan Kumar’s term on December 4.
The move is seen as a conciliatory measure to end the two-month-long stalemate between health minister Anil Vij and chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar over the functioning of the health department.
Vij who is known for his temperamental demeanour was upset at the interference of the CM’s office in the affairs of the health department and had stopped tending to the files of the health portfolio, thus paralysing decision-making.
The strained ties between the two senior-most BJP functionaries in the council of ministers had become a matter of public criticism with Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja, terming the ongoing bickering contrary to public interest. Hooda even promised to take up the matter during the upcoming winter session of the state assembly.
During recent parleys between Khattar and Vij to work out a mutually acceptable proposition, the latter is learned to have sought a replacement for the incumbent DGHS who incidentally happens to be the spouse of a top-ranking officer in the CM’s office.
“There has to be a bargaining chip for things to normalise. The health minister probably does not have the heft to negotiate about the officers deployed in the CM’s office,’’ said a health department official privy to the developments.
The CM though acceded to Vij’s insistence on shifting out Dr Khullar, his move to recompense by putting her in a constitutional post for six years clearly showed that he was firmly behind her. She is likely to be administered an oath of office and secrecy by the governor on December 12.
