Race for new cabinet minister heats up in Punjab; reshuffling on cards; Bains may lose Mining department
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
Today, Punjab cabinet minister Fauja Singh Sarari representing the Guru Har Sahai Assembly constituency in the Punjab Legislative Assembly has resigned from the Mann cabinet. He was cabinet minister of Freedom Fighters, Defence Services Welfare, Food Processing and Horticulture department.
As soon as the minister submitted his resignation to the chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, he immediately accepted the same.
After his resignation, the government has written to Punjab Raj Bhawan about the recent development , resignation by minister and induction of his replacement. It has sought an oath-taking ceremony from Governor Banwarilal Purohit at 4 pm on Saturday.
With this the race for the vacant cabinet berth heats up, many MLA has start contacting their cells in the party high command to get the berth in the cabinet berth.
On the other hand speculations are rife that Harjot Singh Bains , a cabinet minister in the Mann government holding Legal & Legislative Affairs, Mines & Geology, Jails and Tourism & Cultural Affairs department may lose an important portfolio of Mines & Geology department as the government is facing flak from the residents, industry, opposition due to faulty mining policy and rising prices of sands and other building construction material. The same may be allotted to some other minister.
Also day before yesterday, the state government has curtailed the power of principal secretary water resources, mines and geology Krishan Kumar and appointed Gurkirat Kirpal Singh as secretary mines and geology and DPS Kharbanda as director mines and geology. Krishan Kumar is left with water resources department only.
Race for new cabinet minister heats up in Punjab; reshuffling on cards; Bains may lose Mining department. Many MLAs including Dr Balbir Singh from Patiala (Rural), Dinesh Chadha from Rupnagar, Saravjit kaur Manuke (Jagraon), Dr Mohammad Jameel Ur Rehman (Malerkotla) are among the front runners for today’s reshuffle.
Beside these all five stalwart MLAs who has defeated the bigwigs of Punjab namely Sukhbir Singh Badal, Prakash Singh Badal, Capt Amarinder Singh, Charanjit Singh Channi from both seats are also hot contenders for today’s reshuffle. These include Ajitpal singh kohli (Patiala-urban), Dr Charanjit Singh (Chamkaur Sahib), Gurmeet Singh Khuddian (Lambi), jagdeep Kamboj Goldy (Jalalabad) and Labh Singh Ugoke.
Now, it has become a tedious task to select a person for the post keeping in mind the ifs and buts , caste, religion, demographic background etc of the person who is going to be the next minister in Mann’s cabinet.
Mann cabinet’s second wicket down in nine months; another minister resigns
January 7,2023
