‘Conflict of interest law not for MLAs’

CHANDIGARH Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who led the Congress back to power in Punjab, has hit the ground running. While he has straightaway taken steps to fulfil the promises made in the poll manifesto and initiated corrective actions on several fronts, there are challenges and issues that require his immediate attention. In an interview with HT, Captain talks about his action plan and administrative moves. I have told the department to look into it. We don’t want the children to suffer. The university should not enrol new students until its own future is known. They know my stand. We have set up a special task force under a capable officer. It can’t work in isolation. It will carry out its operations in conjunction with the state police. Now, STF chief Harpreet Sidhu has to produce results. When I became the CM in 2002, I had to quit the boards of some institutions. The MLAs have no role. A long time ago, there was a case in the Madras high court in which someone had filed a petition against then CM MGR (MG Ramachandran) for acting in a film. The bench decided that he is very much within his right to earn his livelihood. Punjab has a colossal debt of ₹1.83 lakh crore and budgetary deficit of ₹14,000 crore. We have to cut costs, tighten our belts and work on increasing our revenues. No matter what Akalis say; they squandered money on ‘sangat darshans’ and finished off everything — land sold, building sold and earnings of undertakings like the Mandi Board mortgaged for seven years. We have started normalising things. In five years of my previous tenure, the treasury was never shut for one day. In their 10 years, it rarely opened.