Chandigarh, June 10: The Chairperson of the Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, tendered her resignation to the state administration late Tuesday night. The administrative development followed escalating tensions and organized demonstrations by government nursing associations across multiple districts, although regional authorities have not yet formally declared their acceptance of her departure.
The public dispute originated from an official oversight visit conducted by the commission chief to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Civil Hospital in Kurukshetra. The panel had previously taken independent notice of a serious criminal matter involving a consultant doctor who was subsequently terminated and detained under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. During her review of the hospital facilities, the chairperson engaged in a sharp verbal exchange with the on-duty nursing staff regarding administrative supervision and potential oversight lapses within the treatment wards.
The nursing community expressed deep distress after video recordings of the confrontation became widely shared on digital platforms. Representatives from the state medical unions asserted that attributing institutional failures to the nursing staff without an objective investigation was highly uncalled for and damaging to professional morale.
“Whatever happened was very unfortunate, but Bhatia blamed the nursing staff for negligence and accused some nursing staff of possible collusion in the case,” an association representative declared during a regional briefing. “The nurses were on their respective duties and whenever the doctors who conduct outpatient departments call a nurse during the examination of a female patient, they immediately reach.”
In response to the incident, the Nursing Officers Welfare Association initiated a series of coordinated, two-hour pen-down strikes on Tuesday morning, which temporarily affected non-emergency health services in several government hospitals. As organizing bodies continued to demand a formal apology, the panel chief finalized her resignation letter in Hindi, requesting immediate relief from her responsibilities after leading the commission for more than four years.
The outgoing chairperson maintained that her administrative decision was entirely unprompted by the ongoing healthcare demonstrations. She affirmed that her upcoming international itinerary required an extended period of absence that exceeded standard departmental leave allowances.
“I am going to Japan for twenty days, and then I am going to meet my daughter in the United States, and I will be out for three months,” the panel chief stated when clarifying the timeline. “As one generally gets ten to fifteen days of leave and I will be out for a longer duration, I said, ‘Take my resignation.'”
The former chairperson expressed her gratitude to former Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini for the opportunity to manage the statutory body. She asserted that she had performed her regulatory responsibilities with absolute transparency and declared her intention to continue advocating for institutional protections for women in an independent capacity.
