CM appoints 21 Chief Parliamentary Secys

Chandigarh, April 6
It is soon going to rain red beacons and Toyota Camrys' in Punjab with the state government deciding to promote 21 legislators as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. Of them, 17 MLAs would be from the Shiromani Akali Dal while the remaining four would be from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

All the Chief Parliamentary Secretaries would be administered oath by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on April 10 at the Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh.
With this decision, 31 of the 56 SAD legislators and eight of the 12 BJP MLAs would either be ministers or CPS in-charge of one or more department. The CPS count is seven up from the SAD-BJP government’s first tenure.

The cash-strapped Punjab Government that has a projected deficit of Rs 3,378 crore and a debt burden of Rs 77,585 crore would have 39 of the 68 legislators from the ruling alliance occupying ministerial berths or heading departments as a CPS.

The 17 SAD leaders to be appointed CPS are NK Sharma, Pawan Kumar Tinu, Des Raj Dhugga, Mohinder Kaur Josh, Nisara Khatoon, Avinash Chander, Balbir Singh Gunas, Sohan Singh Thandal, Virsa Singh Valtoha, Sarup Chand Singla, Manta Brar, Parkash Chand Garg, Harmit Singh Sandhu, Inderbir Bularia, Amarpal Singh Boni, Nand Lal and Gurbachan Babbehali. On the BJP's list are KD Bhandari, Som Parkash, Amarjit Shahi and Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu.
In the SAD list of legislators appointed as CPS, there are five first-timers: NK Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Nisara Khatoon, Sarup Chand Singla and Parkash Chand Garg. In the BJP's list, there are two former CPSs and two first-timers. Of all the BJP MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha, only former Minister Manoranjan Kalia and Bhoa MLA Seema Devi remain the two leaders who have not been given any designation. The only other MLA, Ashwani Sharma, is the BJP's Punjab president.

The CPS is not a constitutionally approved post, but a way devised by politicians to circumvent The Constitution's 91st Amendment Act 2003 wherein Article 164 Section 1(A) clearly lays down that the total number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, cannot be more than 15 per cent of the total strength of MLAs in the House. The Punjab Cabinet can have 18 ministers, including the Chief Minister, but after the resignation of Bibi Jagir Kaur, one berth is vacant.

Berth created by Bibi's exit vacant

The berth vacated by Bibi Jagir Kaur was expected to go to another woman MLA of the SAD, but the Chief Minister has made the two likely candidates as CPSs (Josh and Khatoon). Babbehali's name was also doing the rounds as Gurdaspur district was unrepresented in the Cabinet, but he too has been made a CPS. Therefore, this indicates that the Chief Minister wants to keep the slot vacant till Bibi Jagir Kaur's appeal in the High Court was decided.

Daljit Cheema couldn't make it

Another significant omission from the list is that of Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, SAD spokesperson and party's "Doctor Fixit", who is entrusted with all tasks of sorting out complex issues. He could have been kept out on the ground that the chief minister and party president see a greater role for him in the cabinet if Bibi Jagir Kaur's case does not find favour with the high court.