CHANDIGARH: Punjab BJP scored a second successive victory over its coalition partner when it literally forced chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to retract his decision of not appointing chairmen of various boards and corporations.
The seven-member SAD-BJP coordination committee, which met here on Wednesday, decided to refer the gamut of issues pertaining to boards and corporations including review of their functioning, winding up of loss-making PSUs and appointment of chairmen to a sub-committee comprising Cooperation minister Kanwaljit Singh and minister industries Manoranjan Kalia.
Interestingly, in-charge of BJP’s Punjab affairs Balbir Punj and co in-charge Kiran Ghai attended the meeting though both are not members. However, BJP MP Navjot Sidhu failed to turn up - he was said to be busy with Gujarat election campaign. The next meeting of the committee has been fixed for December 10.
Briefing mediapersons informally after the meeting, Punj said the sub-committee under the guidance of CM would decide on contentious issues and a decision would be taken at the earliest, and chairmen, wherever required, would be appointed in all probability during the current year. Ironically, Badal had earlier stated that the cash-strapped state can’t afford to have political appointees in boards and corporation.
Apparently, he mellowed down when the BJP argued that those already appointed to these coveted posts - most of whom are Akali nominees, too should be given marching orders as an austerity measure.
For public consumption, Punj said the appointment of chairmen or deputy CM was never the BJP’s priority. What is significant for the BJP is how to translate its electoral promises into government policies.
However, Punj reiterated in the same breath that the BJP would have around 30% of these posts - given the party’s strength in the coalition.
Referring to resource mobilisation, Punj said a decision would be taken by the government, suggesting that the party had no reservations on it. On the bureaucracy taking BJP ministers for a ride, Punj said Badal has talked of making it more responsive. Meanwhile, the coordination committee has decided to take action on the constitution of five boards for trade and industry - one each for small, medium and big industry, one for small traders and another for big business.
For this, the panel authorised SAD working president Sukhbir Badal and Punjab BJP chief Rajinder Bhandari to constitute the boards by mid-December. Balbir Punj feigned ignorance on Sidhu’s plan to go on hunger strike to press for release of development funds for Amritsar.
Source: The Times of India News Service