Punjab: Five veterinary officers dismissed
In a bold move to address negligence and absenteeism, Punjab Animal Husbandry Department on Thursday terminated the services of five veterinary officers with immediate effect.
A Dalit face of the Congress and third-time MLA from Chamkaur Sahib constituency, Charanjit SIngh Channi (58) will be the new Chief Minister of Punjab.
The Congress high command is believed to have preferred Channi over other contenders in a bid to woo Dalits who make up an estimated 33 per cent of Punjab’s overall population. He will be first ever Dalit chief minister of Punjab. With his elevation to the CM’s post, Congress hopes to return to power in 2022 Assembly polls. Both Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party have been wooing Dalits in Punjab by promising deputy CM’s post to a community member.
Channi was the technical education and industrial training, tourism and cultural affairs, employment generation minister in the Captain Amarinder Singh government. He was one of the four ministers who had openly revolted against Amarinder Singh.
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Previously, he was the leader of Opposition in the Assembly from 2015 to 2016. He belongs to the Ramdasia Sikh community.
Channi’s spectacular rise in politics started as a president of the Kharar municipal council 2002. He contested the 2007 Assembly polls from the Chamkaur Sahib constituency as a Congress rebel and won as an Independent from this reserved constituency. In 2012, he joined the Congress and won the seat. In 2016, he was made the leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly against the wishes of Captain Amarinder Singh-led camp. He draws his strength from the Congress high command and he is seen as a choice of the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
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