Punjab guv spoils Amarinder’s ‘rozgar yojana’ for Cong MLAS

The Punjab governor must be commended for applying brakes on the Congress government’s hurried move to hand over plum board and corporation posts to Congress MLAS. On June 28, the Punjab cabinet had decided to amend the officeof-profit law to save them from likely disqualification and make them eligible for these posts.

It is an old, accepted political practice to placate disenchanted politicians belonging to the ruling party with spoils of office. Earlier, posts of chief parliamentary secretary and parliamentary secretary were created to beat the law limiting the size of the council of ministers to 15 per cent of the strength of the House.

Problems arose when the high courts started striking down these clever, mutually beneficially appointments as illegal. In January this year, the Election Commission of India, in a poorly thought-out move, recommended the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAS appointed as parliamentary secretary for holding an “office of profit”. The President too did not think twice before according his approval to the EC proposal. Both had to cut a sorry figure when the Delhi high court restored the House membership of the AAP MLAS.

Two years ago, the Punjab and Haryana high court had quashed the post of chief parliamentary secretary saying it violated the constitutional 15% cap on the size of the ministry. The SAD-BJP government moved the Supreme Court but was turned away empty-handed.

In the Badal era, politicians were routinely appointed as chairmen and vice-chairmen of boards and corporations. They were even given charge of police stations in their areas. In the changed scenario, the Amarinder Singh government thought it fit to play safe and change the law to bypass the office-of-profit hurdle.

Going by media reports, governor VP Singh Badnore has chiefly objected to the government taking the ordinance route to effect the amendment to the Punjab State Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1952, instead of passing the relevant Bill in the Vidhan Sabha and then sending it to him.

SPOILS OF POWER

Since the governor’s move is in the interest of every political party in opposition hoping to form the next government, none in the political class has raised a howl of protest. The political noises over drugs have helped divert public attention from this otherwise retrograde move to please the MLAS.

Punjab has 29 boards and 26 corporations apart from a number of cooperative institutions such as Markfed, Milkfed and Sugarfed, where out-of-work but influential ruling party members are adjusted. Most of these public sector undertakings (PSUS) serve little or no purpose and should have been closed down long ago, given the state of the treasury and the debt pile-up.

Instead, the grand old man of appeasement politics, Parkash Singh Badal, chose to create many more such institutions — among them the Punjab Gau Sewa Board, Punjab Parvasi Bhalae Board, Employees’ Welfare Board and Potato Development Board. The aim was to keep everyone in his coalition happy regardless of the cost to the exchequer.

PSUS such as the Punjab State Youth Development Board, Punjab Traders’ Board, Punjab Small Traders’ Board, Punjab Medium Industry Development Board, Punjab Small Scale Industry Development Board and Basmati Development Board are meant to serve the needs of politicians more than that of the public. New loans are taken to fund them.

According the white paper it brought out soon after taking charge, the Congress government s got ₹4 crore in 2015-16 on an investment of ₹8,234 crore made in these PSUS. In his 2018-19 budget speech, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal noted, “The total liability on account of (the) PSU debt is ₹19,357crore as on 31.3.2018. Consistent mismanagement of some of the PSUS in the last 10 years has led to a position where the state may actually have to discharge the burden of some the debt incurred by these PSUS.”

Bad governance carries a cost that people pay in the form of additional taxes or debt. In the undivided India, there were only six departments at the Centre and only two secretaries to the governor general who ran the administration. A new post or department could be created only with the approval of the secretary of state for India, who resided in England. Post-independence, new centres of power and privilege have mushroomed all over largely for the benefit of the political class. Undivided Punjab had only one inspector general of police and old-timers say the law and order situation then was not this bad.

PROMISES TO KEEP

In the run-up to the assembly elections, the Congress had made several promises, including ‘Ghar Ghar Rojgaar’. But it was not clarified that the job programme was meant only for Congressmen. Handing over a post of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) to the grandson of an assassinated chief minister would have been justified had similar benefits been extended to all victims of terrorism.

It is not clear under what law or policy did CM Amarinder Singh return to Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal a large sum of ₹84 lakh charged as penal rent from her for the unauthorised occupation of a government accommodation in Chandigarh. Though people of her constituency did not consider her fit for representing them in the assembly, she has been accommodated with the post of vice-chairperson of the Punjab State Planning Board.

Even if the office-of-profit law is amended through an assembly bill, it still may face the legal hurdle that came in the appointments of chief parliamentary secretaries in Punjab, Delhi and elsewhere. Elected representatives draw the salary and enjoy various privileges as MLAS. They hope to get benefits that go with a board/corporation post too.

Institutional checks on the arbitrary use of power are inadequate. The pace of delivery of justice is painfully slow.

There is no law to hold a chief minister accountable for reckless and irresponsible spending of public money other than people voting him out at the end of five years.

Had the Punjab and Haryana high court, in its order on August 13, 2016, quashing the post of chief parliamentary secretary, ordered the recovery of the dues paid to the holders of these illegal posts from the candidates or the parties they belonged to, it would have made CMS act responsibly before handing over official largesse at will.

THE STATE CABINET RECENTLY DECIDED TO AMEND THE OFFICEOFPROFIT LAW TO HAND OVER PLUM BOARD AND CORPORATION POSTS TO RULING PARTY LEGISLATORS AND TO SAVE THEM FROM LIKELY DISQUALIFICATION

(The writer is an Amritsarbased veteran journalist. Views expressed are personal)