CAPT NOW CALLS ON CHANNI, MANPREET
Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh met ministers Manpreet Singh Badal and Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday, but could not break the deadlock over their demand for removal of CS.
CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh met his ministerial colleagues Manpreet Singh Badal and Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday, but could not break the deadlock over their demand for removal of chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh.
The meeting between Amarinder and the two senior ministers, who were the first to seek the 1984-batch IAS officer’s removal from the top bureaucratic position, took place at a lunch hosted by the chief minister at his farmhouse in Siswan village near Chandigarh. Besides finance minister Manpreet Badal and technical education minister Channi, sports and youth affairs minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi and Congress MP Manish Tewari also attended the luncheon meeting.
The deadlock over the chief secretary’s removal came up for discussion expectedly, but both Manpreet Badal and Channi suggested to the chief minister to call a meeting of the state cabinet and discuss the issue with all members. The much-awaited meeting ended without any forward movement on the issue.
When contacted, Manpreet Badal, whose father had passed away recently, confirmed the meeting, stating that on reaching Chandigarh after the 10-day mourning period, he got a message that the chief minister wanted to meet him to offer his condolences personally.
“The chief minister invited me to his residence. I got to know that he (Amarinder) wanted to call the chief secretary also, but I requested him not to do so and the CM was gracious enough not to invite the officer,” he said.
The finance minister said a range of issues, including the state finances, capital expenditure and Covid-19 management measures, were discussed.
“The chief secretary issue also came up as the chief minister wanted to know how to move forward on it. But I suggested to him that since this (chief secretary’s removal) was a unanimous decision of the state cabinet, why doesn’t he call a cabinet meeting and ask what to do. This was my considered view,” he said, confirming that Channi also agreed with him.
The unprecedented row between the chief secretary and senior cabinet ministers had started when they had a showdown over the proposed changes in the excise policy at a pre-cabinet meeting on May 9 amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
The ministers, led by Manpreet Badal and Channi, got upset over the chief secretary’s demeanour and behaviour towards them and walked out of the meeting. At the cabinet meeting two days later, the ministers ‘unanimously’ gave an ultimatum to the chief minister to sack Karan Avtar or they would not attend meetings as long as he was there.
Amarinder later divested the officer of the charge of financial commissioner, taxation, but this failed to placate the ministers. Monday’s luncheon meeting was the first between Amarinder and his two ministers since.
As a part of his efforts to break the deadlock, the chief minister had last week also hosted a lunch for Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and MLAS Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Pargat Singh and Sangat Singh Gilzian. All five had earlier vociferously sought the officer’s removal and a probe into the excise revenue losses, demands which they reiterated during the last week’s meet.
I suggested to him (CM) that since chief secretary’s removal was a unanimous decision of the state cabinet, why doesn’t he call a cabinet meeting and ask what to do. MANPREET SINGH BADAL, finance minister