Will give govt staff freedom to perform: Harbhajan Singh ETO

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, March 27

Minister for Power and Energy Harbhajan Singh is popularly known as ETO in his Jandiala constituency as he resigned from the post of Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) before joining the politics.

An MA in political science, Singh, 53, comes from a humble background and has experience of working with bureaucrats. A 2012-batch PCS officer, he quit the post of ETO to unsuccessfully contest the Assembly elections in 2017 on AAP ticket. He remained loyal to AAP even as many of its MLAs and candidates turned rebel after the 2017 elections. He kept working in his constituency and remained active in public. He used to take private tuitions to meet the expenses after leaving the job.

Need their cooperation

There are high expectations from AAP which cannot be fulfilled without the cooperation of government officials and employees. — Harbhajan Singh, Jandiala MLA

Now, he won from the same constituency by defeating Congress’ MLA Sukhwinder Singh Danny. “I wanted to change the system but it was not possible while doing a government job under the leadership of traditional parties. I decided to be part of the revolution against the mainstream parties. It took time, but we finally won,” said Singh.

“I have served in the government department and am well aware of the needs and problems of government employees. I will not put any pressure government employee and given them the required freedom. There are high expectations of the people from AAP which cannot be fulfilled without the cooperation of government officials and employees,” said Singh.

“I will ensure that there was no inconvenience to the people in government offices. First of all, I have issued the directions to Food Supply Department officials to distribute the wheat at subsidised rates in the villages and towns from the government office or any other commonplace instead of house of a panch or sarpanch,” he said.