GURUGRAM: The Haryana State Pollution Control Board on 2 October suspended its Gurugram North regional officer Akansha Tanwar and Gurugram South regional officer Mukul Kumar with immediate effect after Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini reviewed persistent resident welfare association complaints on pollution enforcement in the city.
Separate orders signed by HSPCB chairman Shekhar Vidyarthi, IAS, and dated 2 October place both officers under suspension and fix their headquarters for the suspension period at the HSPCB head office in Sector 6, Panchkula. Both remain entitled to subsistence allowance under the applicable rules.
The orders were circulated after a Friday review meeting on Gurugram development and civic issues. Officials present said the review included complaints about a builder-operated sewage treatment plant's functioning and wider RWA dissatisfaction with how pollution tickets were being handled, though the written suspension orders themselves do not spell out individual charge sheets.
What the suspensions change on the ground
Gurugram North and South regional offices are the board's front-line units for consent management, STP and industrial monitoring, and complaint disposal in their jurisdictions. With both regional officers suspended the same day, day-to-day field decisions will route through officers holding additional charge until replacements are notified.
Saini warned at the review that negligence or incorrect reporting on citizen complaints would not be tolerated. The timing matters because winter air and sewage-odour complaints usually rise as temperatures fall, and RWAs have been pressing the board on untreated discharge and construction-dust enforcement.
HSPCB publishes board-level contacts and regional office details through https://hspcb.gov.in/. District civic and pollution complaint routing also sits on https://gurugram.gov.in/. Residents who already have open STP or industrial pollution tickets should keep complaint numbers handy and ask for the name of the officer now holding charge of their region.
Suspension is an administrative step, not a court finding of guilt. The officers can face a departmental inquiry under service rules; until that process finishes, readers should treat the action as accountability after political review of RWA complaints, not as a finished verdict on every cited plant or unit.
Builders and industrial units with live consents were reminded that a change of regional officer does not pause sampling, surprise checks or closure directions already on file. Fresh violations can still draw notices from whoever holds the North or South desk during the suspension.
The twin suspensions put both Gurugram HSPCB regions under the same Friday spotlight as MCG's e-Samadhan sewer action the same day. Together they signal that portal and field reporting gaps on pollution and drainage are drawing state-level consequences this week, not only local memos.
Endorsement numbers circulating with the orders (including 5875 and 5876 in public circulation of the office copies) fix the paper trail to 2 October from the Panchkula headquarters. Anyone seeking certified copies should approach HSPCB HQ channels rather than rely on forwarded images alone.
For RWAs that have logged repeated STP odour or effluent complaints, the practical next step is to reconfirm the open ticket status after the charge handover and insist on a dated site visit note. The suspension orders create pressure; they do not by themselves empty a choked outfall.
