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Punjab cabinet ministers on Monday asked Prime Minister Amarinder Singh to fire chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh and stated that they would not attend cabinet meetings as long as he attends these meetings.
Karan Avtar Singh had confronted ministers at a pre-cabinet meeting on excise policy on Saturday, insisting that the ministers’ recommended changes to the policy could not be taken into account. The confrontation had prompted ministers to leave the meeting on Saturday; Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal was the first to withdraw. Saturday’s cabinet meeting was postponed until Monday.
In an informal meeting before the cabinet meeting, the ministers decided to stand firm and leave the meeting if the chief secretary is present.
The chief secretary was advised to stay away from Monday’s cabinet meeting and his additional (home) chief secretary, Satish Chandra, was tasked with officiating in his absence.
As soon as Monday’s cabinet meeting began, the ministers told Prime Minister Amarinder Singh that they would not attend the cabinet meetings if the chief secretary was present.
This could be a little troublesome. Under the regulations, the chief secretary of a state is also the cabinet secretary, coordinates all cabinet meetings, and signs on official records.
“The prime minister accepted our demand because he asked us all to bring our grouse,” Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, minister of cooperation and prisons, told the Hindustan Times.
“Manpreet (Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal) and I said that the behavior of the chief secretary is not acceptable. It is rude and does not understand that officers and elected representatives are two sides of the coin, “technical education minister Charanjeet Singh Channi told HT.
Channi said the chief secretary had also been rude to him in the past and had even questioned his integrity.
Channi said the prime minister had promised to act.
A Punjab high minister said Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh had indicated that he was ready to apologize for burying the ax. But Manpreet Singh Badal has insisted that it is not a game.
“Some ministers want to give the chief secretary a second chance, but the finance minister remains steadfast,” an anonymous cabinet minister said.
The dispute over the chief secretary stemmed from a pre-cabinet meeting on Saturday when Minister Charanjit Channi demanded that someone be held responsible for loss of income due to the state’s special tax policy. Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, who found some of the suggestions made by the ministers to be unacceptable, reminded the minister that the policies are only implemented after the approval of the ministers.
Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal quickly responded to the official’s response, which was deemed too curt.
“If the officials have already made a decision on the policy, what was the fun of discussing the matter with the ministers?” Badal said moments before leaving the meeting. Other ministers also left soon after.
On the subject of the agenda before the cabinet, the ministers decided to authorize Prime Minister Amarinder Singh to make the decision. Liquor contractors in the state want the government to compensate them for the 45 days they had to close liquor sales.
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