Amid grouse over babus calling the shots, Punjab sets up 17 advisory committees to check working of departments

CHANDIGARH: Amid discontent in a section of the ruling Congress over bureaucrats calling the shots, the Punjab government has set up 17 state advisory committees comprising legislators from all parties to streamline the functioning of government departments and ensure accountability of officials in the state.

The state advisory panels constituted under the minister in-charge have 10 MLAs each as non-official members, besides senior officers of the department, according to a notification issued by the parliamentary affairs department. The committees have been set up to streamline the day-to-day functioning of the government and help formulate people-oriented policies.

Though these panels are expected to allow the MLAs to intervene in programmes and issues of public interest, the move has come belatedly at the fag-end of the tenure of the Congress government.

The tenure of these committees will be till March 31, 2022, or the term of the present assembly, whichever is earlier. The state assembly elections are due early next year.

Parliamentary affairs and local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra said the committees would be a good platform for the MLAs to know the functioning and performance of the government. “They can also raise their concerns regarding policies and programmes and give their inputs on future planning,” he said, recalling his experience as a member of the advisory panel in his first term as MLA in the early 1980s. The minister said he would take steps to ensure these committees hold a few meetings in the remaining few months.

The panel has members from the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), BJP and the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) in proportion to their strength in the assembly, but one significant omission from these panels is disgruntled Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu is among the dissident Congress legislators. A grouse of some of them is that the state bureaucracy has been calling the shots and controlling decision-making.

However, other dissenters such as Pargat Singh and Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon have been included in two committees.

Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is a member of the advisory panel for transport and water supply and sanitation. The names of rebel AAP legislators Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Pirmal Singh Khalsa and Nazar Singh Manshahia, who have joined the Congress, figure as members of the AAP. It would be mandatory for the committee to meet once within three months and one meeting would be held during the assembly session and one must be convened between two sessions. The committees were last formed during the previous SAD-BJP government.