Gurugram news: IAS officers transferred in Haryana reshuffle after monsoon mayhem, amid worsening AQI; who are they?

Haryana on Tuesday changed the leadership of two key civic bodies in Gurugram, transferring the chief executive officer of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner in a wider administrative reshuffle involving 14 IAS and HCS officers.

The changes come months after severe monsoon waterlogging brought Gurugram to a standstill, leaving school buses carrying children stranded on flooded roads, and amid deteriorating air quality across Delhi-NCR. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has also invoked Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across the region.

According to a Haryana government order dated November 10, Phool Chand Meena, a 2004-batch IAS officer who was heading the GMDA and Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority (FMDA), has been moved to the posts of Commissioner and Secretary in the state's Human Resources and General Administration departments.

Quick answers to key questions

•5

QUESTIONS

Dusmanta Kumar Behera, a 2007-batch IAS officer, replaced Meena as CEO of both the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority and the Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority.

Pankaj, a 2020-batch IAS officer who was Municipal Commissioner of Panipat, took over as MCG Commissioner and District Municipal Commissioner of Gurugram.

It followed severe August waterlogging that disrupted traffic and left school buses carrying children stranded for hours. The flooding also raised concerns about drainage infrastructure and accountability.

Stage III includes restrictions on non-essential construction and demolition, along with measures from earlier GRAP stages. The CAQM also called for dust-control measures.

NISE Gwal Pahari recorded an AQI of 359 at around 5 am. An AQI between 301 and 400 falls in the ‘very poor’ category.

Dusmanta Kumar Behera, a 2007-batch IAS officer who was holding these two departmental positions, will replace Meena as CEO of both the GMDA and FMDA.

At the MCG, Commissioner Pradeep Dahiya has been transferred as Managing Director of the Haryana State Federation of Cooperative Sugar Mills and Director of the State Audit Department. Pankaj, a 2020-batch IAS officer who was serving as Municipal Commissioner of Panipat, took over as the new MCG Commissioner and District Municipal Commissioner of Gurugram.

Mohd Imran Raza has been appointed Additional CEO of the GMDA, while Ankita Choudhary has been moved from the MCG to take charge as Municipal Commissioner of Panipat. The reshuffle also includes changes in other IAS and HCS postings.

Why Gurugram's civic reshuffle comes into focus after monsoon chaos

The transfers come after city's alleged failure to cope with heavy monsoon rainfall in August. On August 24, intense showers inundated several arterial roads, underpasses and residential areas, disrupting traffic and leaving children travelling home from school stuck in buses for hours.

Gurugram recorded around 75 mm of rainfall between 8 am and 5 pm that day, according to district administration data. Subhash Chowk was among the worst-affected locations, with school buses stranded in waterlogging and traffic congestion.

On August 25, hundreds of schoolchildren had remained inside buses for hours. Parents struggled to reach them as flooded roads and traffic snarls blocked access to several areas. The district administration subsequently invoked the Disaster Management Act and issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) to regulate school transport during heavy rainfall.

14 school buses had remained stranded for up to six hours during the August waterlogging. Children were inside the buses as water accumulated around the vehicles.

The flooding also triggered questions over drainage infrastructure and accountability.

On September 8, Union Minister of State and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh wrote to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini seeking a vigilance inquiry into the waterlogging. He raised concerns about encroachments on natural drains and the lack of action despite notices being issued to builders, according to ThePrint.

A senior Haryana government officer told ThePrint that the transfers were part of a routine process and should not be read as having any specific significance.

Gurugram AQI amid GRAP Stage III restrictions

The administrative changes also come as air pollution remains a major concern across Delhi-NCR. On November 12, Delhi recorded an average AQI of 321 at 7 am, placing it in the 'very poor' category, according to CPCB data. Gurugram also reported elevated pollution levels, with NISE Gwal Pahari recording an AQI of 359 at around 5 am, according to readings.

The CAQM invoked Stage III of GRAP across Delhi-NCR on November 6 after Delhi's daily average AQI reached 382. The commission said forecasts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology indicated that air quality was likely to deteriorate into the 'severe' category.

Stage III measures include restrictions on non-essential construction and demolition activities, alongside measures under the earlier stages. The CAQM has also called for dust-control measures and urged citizens to follow its advisory.

About the Author

Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers. <br><br> With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations. <br><br> Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’. <br><br> He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune. <br><br> He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP. <br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X