Ex-minister Kirpa Ram Punia dies at 89

Dr Kirpa Ram Punia, bureaucrat-turned-politician and former Cabinet minister in the Haryana Government, died following heart ailment on Saturday night at a hospital in Panchkula. He was 89.

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He was admitted to the hospital in the first week of December after he received an injury. Punia is survived by four sons, a daughter, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Dr Punia was born on January 1, 1936, at Salhawas village of Jhajjar district (then Rohtak).

His elder son had died two years ago.

Ajay Chautala, national president of the JJP, said the state had lost a leader who worked for the poor and labourers.

Former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala said the demise of Dr Punia was a loss to the social and political arena.

Kiran Punia, JJP state secretary and elder daughter-in-law of Dr Punia, who had unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary poll from Ambala constituency last year, said he was the first IAS officer of Haryana after separation from Punjab. He had taken retirement after former Deputy PM Tau Devi Lal asked him to join the party. Punia won the Assembly election in 1987 from Baroda constituency in Sonepat and became the Industries minister in the Lok Dal government led by the then CM, Devi Lal.

He resigned from the party and joined the Indian National Congress in 1991, and the BSP in 2017. In 2018, he joined the JJP.