FIRs against 36 officials as census faces delay in Haryana

Gurgaon: With Haryana’s ongoing census exercise suffering significant disruption across six districts, authorities have initiated action against employees who failed to report for duty.

Over a hundred govt employees — total 116 — are likely to face criminal action. A majority of these officials are govt school teachers.

The administration has already filed FIRs against 36 govt employees, while notices have been issued to 80 more, against whom FIRs are also being prepared. In Gurgaon, cases were filed against 10 officials on Monday. The govt has clarified that FIRs will be followed by suspension proceedings.

Officials said that despite being assigned enumeration work, many employees did not turn up, leading to delays and obstacles in the census process. Lists have already been handed over to the police for FIR registration — 19 employees in Gurgaon, 22 in Faridabad and 18 in Sonipat. In Panchkula, 21 employees have been issued notices.

Employees, however, say they have been overburdened with multiple responsibilities. Many are required to manage voter list revision (SIR), census duties and school work simultaneously. Census teams also face resistance in the field, with residents frequently asking suspicious questions or refusing to provide information. Several videos circulating online show workers being turned away by locals citing fears of “data leaks.”

With over 15,000 teaching posts vacant in Haryana’s schools, the burden on existing staff has increased sharply. In multiple schools, only one teacher is posted — and even that teacher has been assigned to census duty. In Panipat, the entire staff of several schools has been deputed as enumerators, raising concerns about normal academic functioning.

“We are struggling with the load of three parallel duties — voter list revision, census work and school responsibilities — without additional allowance or compensation,” said a school teacher engaged in census work. Some have submitted medical reasons: one 55-year-old teacher wrote that due to arthritis, climbing stairs causes severe swelling in her legs. Others cited allergy to heat. The officials also alleged the location assigned to them is far away from their home and school and they have not been provided with any logistical support.

Enumerators also claim that locals often refuse to share information. A video from Julana shows residents declining to provide household details and alleging risk of data leakage.

Another major concern among employees is the long-term impact on their service conditions. The Haryana govt has imposed a ban on transfers for all employees deployed in census work until March 31, 2027, adding to the discontent.

In Sonipat, the municipal corporation has submitted a list of 18 officials and employees — from govt schools, ITIs, polytechnics, the women and child development department and the corporation — accused of absence and negligence.

In Faridabad, around 9,000 employees have been deputed for the census. FIRs have already been registered against nine employees and the administration has requested FIRs against 22 more.

In Bhiwani, an FIR was filed at Thana Sadar Bhiwani against Satish Kumar, a teacher at Govt Senior Secondary School, Rewari Khera, for negligence and allegedly using abusive language when questioned.

The Panchkula civic body has submitted a list of 21 employees repeatedly neglecting census duties. Deputy Commissioner Satpal Sharma has ordered their department heads to start suspension proceedings and has said FIRs will be filed if required.

Separately, a two-day show-cause notice has been served to Deepak Sukhija, the charge officer of Municipal Council Kalka, for slow progress. He has been warned of suspension if improvements are not seen.

Despite disruptions and employee protests, Haryana govt maintains that the census is progressing effectively. According to census operations director Lalit Jain, work has begun in over 97% of all house-listing blocks.

Authorities claim that Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Fatehabad, Hansi, Charkhi Dadri and Faridabad have achieved 100% commencement of work, with Charkhi Dadri leading the state at over 32% completion. Among municipal corporations, Panipat, Rohtak and Faridabad are showing better performance.

Two FIRs in city: Cases have been registered against 10 MCG employees for alleged negligence in the census work and defiance of govt orders. Gurgaon police registered two FIRs under Section 11 of the Census Act, 1948.

The FIRs name the accused employees as Sandeep, Hansraj, Kuldeep, Rajesh Kumar, Ravita Yadav, Jagmati, Sunil Kumar, Daisy Sharma, Sunil Kumar and Amit Kumar. According to the complaints, all of them remained absent from census training sessions and allegedly failed to commence work despite repeated instructions from authorities.

MCG Commissioner and principal census officer Pradeep Dahiya said, “Negligence, indifference or defiance of govt directives of any kind for Census 2027 won’t be tolerated. All officers and employees will have to ensure the discharge of their assigned responsibilities with complete dedication and accountability.”

According to the FIRs, the complaints were filed by MCG charge officer-cum-zonal taxation officer Rajesh Yadav and superintendent Dinesh Kumar. The complainants said that the employees were appointed as enumerators for Census 2027 on April 29 and 30 and were assigned house-listing blocks for survey work.

During a review conducted by the competent authority on May 17, it was allegedly found that despite sufficient time passing, the concerned employees did not make a single entry in their HLO app IDs. This has been considered a serious act of negligence towards the National Census work and a deliberate defiance of govt orders.

The FIRs allege that despite repeated reminders, instructions and supervision by senior officials, the enumerators failed to carry out the required data entries on the designated HLO mobile application used for census-related work.

The complainants said that even after delays and lack of progress were flagged during the May 17 review, the employees continued to ignore official instructions and failed to begin the assigned work. Their conduct has been described in the FIRs as “gross negligence”, “dereliction of duty” and “wilful disobedience” of govt orders.

The FIRs said that the alleged non-cooperation disrupted preparations for Census 2027 and obstructed govt work linked to the nationwide exercise, adversely affecting the preparedness and progress of census operations in Gurgaon.

Based on these allegations, police registered cases dealing with refusal or neglect to perform duties assigned under the Act.

With inputs from Vishakha Chaman