Zail Singh ministry sworn in
Four Our Special Correspondent
Chandigarh, March 17 – A 10 member Congress Ministry, headed by Giani Zail Singh, was sworn in by Dr D C Pavate, Governor of Punjab, at a colourful ceremony held on the lawns of Punjab Raj Bhavan this morning.
Besides Giani Zail Singh as Chief Minister, the new Ministry includes Capt Rattan Singh, Mr. Umrao Singh, Mr. Hans Raj Sharma and Mr. Gurmail Singh and Cabinet Ministers; Mr. Gian Chand Kharbanda and Mr. Joginder Paul Pandey as Ministers of State; and three Deputy Ministers, namely Mr. Nasib Singh Gill, Mr. Santokh Singh Randhawa and Miss Sarla Prashar.
A Chief Parliamentary Secretary may be appointed soon. In this regard the name of Mr Balbir Singh nephew of Mr Swaran Singh, External Affairs Minister, is being mentioned.
The Ministry may also be expanded to include representatives of Kapurthala, Sangrur and Bhatinda districts.
For the first time since the formation of the new state in November 1966, all the ministers took their oath of office in Punjabi. With today’s ceremony, Dr. Pavate has administered oath of office to four Chief Ministers and 78 ministers.
Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, former Akali Chief Minister, attended the ceremony and was among the first to congratulate members of the new ministry. Others present included two former Chief Minister, Mr. Gurnam Singh and Mr. Brish Bhan; the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr. Harbans Singh, Mr. Avtar Singh Malhotra, State Secretary of the CPI: Mrs. Ram Kaur Kairon, wife of the late Chief Minister, Mrs. Sajda Begum of Malerkotla. Mr. Surinder Singh Kairon, the Patti MLA, was the first person to garland the new Chief Minister.
Also present were Mr. I. D. N. Sahi, Adviser to the Punjab Governor, who later left for Delhi and a large number of officials led by Mr. R. S. Talwar, Chief Secretary.
It is believed that although it was originally proposed to have Mr. Nasib Singh Gill of Zira, as the Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Giani Zail Singh, who had been given a free hand by the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, in the matter of formation of his ministry, decided at the last minute to appoint him as one of the three Deputy Ministers.
The Ministers were profusely garlanded by a very large crowd of their admirers and Congress workers including many women from all over Punjab.
Some of the Ministers were even mobbed at the end of the ceremony, because of the biggest ever rush at any such ceremony, the State’s Public Relations Department failed to make proper sitting arrangements for a number of pressmen. As the seats reserved for them were occupied by the government officers, they had to keep standing throughout the half-hour ceremony which had been delayed by a 10 minutes because of the big crowd.
