Bhattal appointed vice-chairperson of planning board, gets Cabinet rank
CHANDIGARH:FORMER chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has been appointed vice-chairperson of Punjab State Planning Board in the rank and status of a Cabinet minister. The finance department has issued the notification on a directive from chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, after following due procedure and taking into consideration her eligibility for the post.
The notification says her appointment would be effective from the date she assumes charge. The detailed terms and conditions would be determined in due course, it adds.
Bhattal’s appointment is being seen as an attempt of the government to accommodate her in a government bungalow, which she had got in the capacity of a former CM in the previous SAD-BJP regime.
In May this year, a Supreme Court judgment had upheld that former chief ministers are not entitled to government houses.
The erstwhile SAD-BJP government had two posts of vicechairperson in the State Planning Board. Industrialist Rajinder Gupta held one post with the second occupied by Punjab BJP chief, Rajinder Bhandari. After Bhandari’s resignation, a post fell vacant. This has now been filled with the appointment of Bhattal.
Responding to the appointment, leader of opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira said, “First, 20-odd advisers and officers on special duty (OSDS) and now the Cabinet status to Bhattal. This is like tearing the Constitution into bits,” he said. The AAP leader also urged Bhattal not to accept the post, saying that it would be an insult to the office of the CM she had held earlier.