Former minister Kirpa Ram Punia dies at 89 in Panchkula

Bureaucrat-turned-politician and former Haryana minister Dr Kirpa Ram Punia died of a heart ailment on Saturday night. He was 89.

The former minister passed away at 9:46 pm at Paras Hospital in Panchkula. Punia had been admitted to the hospital after he had received an injury.

He is survived by four sons, a daughter and 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Punia was born on January 1, 1936, in Salhawas village of Jhajjar district.

Kiran Punia, elder daughter-in-law, who unsuccessfully contested Parliamentary polls from Ambala constituency in 2024 said that her father-in-law was the first IAS officer of Haryana after separated from Punjab.

Punia had taken retirement after former Deputy Prime Minister Tau Devi Lal asked him to join the party and he had won the Assembly election in 1987 from Baroda constituency in Sonepat and became Industries Minister in the Lok Dal government led by the then Chief Minister Devi Lal, she said.

The former minister resigned from the party and joined the Indian National Congress in 1991, the BSP in 2017 and quitted in 2018, and joined the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). He also served as national vice president of the JJP.