Chandigarh Dec 31 PTI Haryanas newly inducted minister Dr Kamal Gupta on Friday carried out a surprise inspection at the Municipal Corporation office in Panchkula and found majority of the staff absent The minister for Urban Local Bodies and Housing For All soon ordered the officials concerned to take strict action against those missing from the office without a genuine reason Dr Gupta who was earlier in the week allocated the two departments had on Thursday warned employees to report for duty on time I felt disappointed It is a matter of concern that 80 percent of the employees were absent the minister told reporters However Panchkula Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal later told reporters that 29 of the 48 employees were absent according to which a little over 60 per cent of the employees were absent Four other employees were on leave Goyal said I think it is the incompetency of our officers Strict action will be taken against those found absent and the officials will be held accountable Dr Gupta said after checking the attendance register He said the days pay of absentees without a genuine reason will be deducted while those with a valid reason will be spared Dr Gupta a two-time MLA from Hisar and a senior BJP leader along with Jannayak Janata Partys Devender Singh Babli were inducted into the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Council of Ministers on Tuesday The department of Urban Local Bodies was earlier held by senior minister Anil Vij while the Housing For All portfolio was with the chief minister PTI SUN CJ CJ

Chandigarh Dec 28 PTI Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will expand his Cabinet on Tuesday inducting an MLA each from his party BJP and ally Jannayak Janta PartyIn the second expansion to be carried out in two years BJPs Hisar MLA Dr Kamal Gupta and JJPs Tohana MLA Devender Singh Babli will be inducted into the Khattar cabinet Two MLAs will be inducted One is Kamal Gupta second one is Devender Babli Khattar told reporters here ahead of the cabinet expansionYes the suspense is over now Khattar said in a lighter vein when pointed out that the cabinet expansion was finally taking place after months of speculation in this regard After the two MLAs take oath the strength of council of ministers will go up to 14 including the chief minister which is the upper limitEarlier 10 MLAs were inducted into Khattar cabinet in November 2019 days after the chief minister and his deputy Dushyant Chautala were sworn-in on October 27 2019After the cabinet expansion takes place on Tuesday evening the BJP will have 10 ministers including the CM and JJP will have three ministers including Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala while Ranjit Singh Chautala is the lone Independent MLA inducted as a ministerThe BJP fell short of a simple majority winning 40 of the 90 assembly seats in the October 2019 polls and later it forged a post-poll alliance with the JJP which has 10 MLAsPTI SUN VSD DV DV