Chandigarh, August 2
The Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, accompanied by nine others, including the Finance Minister and two MLAs, three bureaucrats and three policemen left for his foreign visit today without naming anyone to officiate in his place during his nine-day absence.
The Chief Minister and his entourage after a brief halt in London, would visit the USA for meetings with World Bank officials and prominent NRIs and make a stopover in Malaysia before returning home on the night of August 10.
Accompanying him are Finance Minister Lal Singh, Chairman of the high-powered finance committee Surinder Singla, Political Secretary Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Chief Secretary Y.S. Ratra, Finance Secretary K.R. Lakhanpal, and Principal Secretary S.K. Sinha. Besides, three police officers — Mr CSR Reddy (DIG), Mr Khubhi Ram and Mr Gautam Cheema (both SPs) — are accompanying him to provide security cover.
The Chief Minister had at a recent press conference parried all questions about naming his deputy for the period he would be abroad. The Chief Secretary has, however, left instructions that all Administrative Secretaries could take all routine decisions on their own and leave the complex issues or those related to the state policies till his return from abroad.
The Finance Department has named Mr R.C. Nayyar, Secretary (Expenditure), as the officiating Finance Secretary while the Home Department, which is headed by Mr S.K. Sinha (Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister), has preferred not to make any ad hoc arrangements.
At one stage, the CM Secretariat was planning to keep the size of the delegation small. It was on second thought that it was decided to include a DIG and two SPs of the CM’s security in the team. This was done after a note put up by the security wing cautioned the
government about the strong presence of Babbar Khalsa International in the USA which declared it an outlawed organisation recently.
This is all the more interesting as the SAD and the BJP have already given a call for holding rallies, workers’ conferences and protest rallies at all district headquarters between August 3 and 11.
On August 9, there would be demonstrations and dharnas at all district headquarters in protest against the “reign of terror let loose by the Congress Government against its political opponents”.
It will be during the absence of the Chief Minister and his men that certain important decisions will have to be taken, including handling of the situation arising out of the drought-like situation prevailing in the state. The progress of various cases investigated by the Vigilance Bureau, too, needs close monitoring.
Scheduled for August 5 is the important case pertaining to public interest litigation in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking transfer of the investigation into the recruitment scam to a central agency (CBI).
These and several other important issues would require handling by someone who could take decisions on behalf of the Chief Minister.
