Liquor vends row-bureaucracy gets jolt in Punjab; govt takes back FCT charge from chief secretary
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
After the ministers disagreement with Punjab’s Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, a 1984-batch IAS officer, over state excise policy , today Punjab chief minister in a damage-control exercise, divested its Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh of the charge of Financial Commissioner Taxation from him. The disparagement between the top bureaucratic and minister occur “over changes proposed in the excise policy to compensate the liquor contractors for the lockdown period”.
The charge of the Excise and Taxation department has been given to another senior level IAS officer, A Venu Prasad, who will continue to also hold charge of Power, Mines and Geology and Water Resources department.
A Venu Prasad is presently on leave till May 20 , as his father expires recently and in his absence Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary, Finance, will be in charge of the Taxation department. As per sources, “the transfer orders have been issued by the Chief Secretary himself”.
Liquor vends row-bureaucracy gets jolt in Punjab; govt takes back FCT charge from chief secretary.Yesterday,the Punjab Council of Ministers authorised the Chief Minister to take further course of action on the issue of amendments to the state’s Excise Policy in the light of the impact of Covid-19 and the prolonged lockdown on the liquor business.
During yesterday Punjab council meeting, the Chief Minister told the Cabinet that he had taken note of the complaint against Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh by some of the ministers. Incidentally, the Chief Secretary had taken half day’s leave with the Chief Minister’s permission and was not present at that meeting.
The present row is being seen as an embarrassment for the chief minister as he is also the minister in charge of the taxation department.
May,12,2020 (10:30 PM)
