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Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 9
In an unprecedented development on Saturday, several Punjab cabinet ministers emerged from a pre-cabinet meeting on alcoholic beverage policy convened here in Punjab Bhavan, following an alleged discussion between Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and the secretary at Punjab chief Karan Avtar Singh.
The meeting was called to discuss the new alcoholic beverages policy, before being approved at the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Saturday night.
In addition to the ministers, the Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Suresh Kumar, and the Chief Secretary to the CM, Tejvir Singh, attended the meeting.
The situation became tense when, during the course of the discussion, the Chief Secretary commented on the non-viability of certain suggestions presented by the ministers. The Minister of Finance objected to certain comments made by the Chief Secretary, who rose and left the meeting.
Later, the Cooperation Minister, Sukhjinder Randhawa, also made some remarks against the operation of the Department of Excise.
Although the high officials tried to appease the ministers, they had begun to leave the place. The meeting was to be followed by lunch before the cabinet meeting. But after the fiasco, the cabinet meeting was postponed until Monday.
The ministers suggested that a government department take control of unsold sales and certain other changes in excise policy.
The other ministers present at the meeting were Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Balbir Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla and OP Soni.
No official of the ministers present at the meeting answered the calls.
Before leaving, the ministers reportedly expressed their anguish over the delay in finalizing the excise tax policy and the decision-making bureaucracy in government decision-making.
Since the Covid-19 lockdown began, some of the ministers have been reported to be in a bad mood for being ignored in decision-making and the bureaucrats who run the program.
Due to social distancing, ministers have been unable to meet with Prime Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and have been interacting through videoconferences during cabinet meetings.
Punjab liquor sales to remain closed as excise policy meeting inconclusive
Chandigarh: Liquor sales in Punjab will remain closed for now, as the meeting between the government and special tax officials to deliberate on the suggested changes to the Excise Tax Policy on Saturday was inconclusive.
The Excise Tax Policy, 2020-21, will be presented to the Council of Ministers on Monday.
The ministers met with officials from the Department of Excise and Taxation on Saturday to discuss the suggested changes to the Excise Policy.
The discussions were inconclusive, so the Chief Minister asked them to complete their deliberations over the weekend and convey their views at the meeting of the Council of Ministers to be held on Monday. TNS
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