Punjab: 3-member panel to probe sale of Panchayat land by then minister to coloniser
He said water channels and pathways together constituted 32 Kanal and 16 marle land adding that due to this permission the state has suffered a loss of Rs 28 Crore.
Amid the political row over the non-existent Administrative Reforms Department allotted to him, Punjab Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has downplayed the controversy, saying for him Punjab is important and not the department.
As the controversy erupted, the Punjab government abolished the department allotted to Dhaliwal from May 2023. Reacting to the development, Dhaliwal sought to downplay the issue, asserting that his priority remains Punjab’s welfare.
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“They have now abolished the department. We have all come to save Punjab. For me, the department is not important; Punjab is important. (Whether this department exists or not) is not an agenda for us,” he told a news agency.
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The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government was on the receiving end over the issue with Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri mocking the AAP government’s governance.
“He was heading a department for 20 months which is ‘non-existent’. Such a thing can happen only under the leadership of the AAP government,” Puri remarked.
BJP leader Fatehjung Singh Bajwa also slammed the AAP, claiming that the Mann-led government has set Punjab back by decades.
“Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal is one of the most senior leaders of the Cabinet and he was leading a non-existent department, which means no meeting was ever taken… What kind of administrative reforms are being taken? People are going abroad through dunki routes, and no agent or tout who sent them was ever caught,” Bajwa said.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has defended the government’s decision, arguing that the department had been restructured rather than abolished.
“We changed its name and created a new department. Earlier it was just for the name, there was no staff or office. Now, it has been created to bring reforms, whether it is in bureaucracy or other areas… We are also looking at merging several departments with similar functions into one department,” Mann clarified.
“We changed its name and created a new department. Earlier it was just for the name, there was no staff or office. Now, it has been created to bring reforms, whether it is in bureaucracy or other areas… We are also looking at merging several departments with similar functions into one department,” Mann clarified.
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