CM’s Office recast on the anvil

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26

A major reshuffle is in the offing in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) with CM’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Capt Bhupinder Singh putting in his papers and reports of another OSD on his way out.

The resignation of Capt Bhupinder Singh is seen as a consequence of complaints against him by some ministers and MLAs to BJP Haryana affairs in charge Anil Jain during the core committee meeting of the party here on May 24.

Sources said issues regarding ‘inaccessibility’ of OSDs, who were primarily political appointees, and senior bureaucrats posted in the CMO were flagged during the core committee meeting. Besides, MLAs and other elected representatives had been alleging raw deal at the hands of senior functionaries in the CMO regarding development works in their areas.

The sources said Capt Bhupinder Singh might be ‘rehabilitated’ as chairman of a board or corporation as certain boards are functioning without a full-time chairman. Earlier, OSDJawahar Yadav, who was shunted from the CMO, was adjusted as the Chairman of the Haryana Housing Board.

The OSDs in the CMO are mostly political appointees except one, while posts of the Principal Secretary to CM, Additional Principal Secretary to CM and Deputy Principal Secretary to CM are manned by bureaucrats.

A senior functionary of the BJP said besides Capt Bhupinder Singh, another OSD might be eased out of the CMO and his services could be utilised in a board or corporation. “Besides, some bureaucrats in the CMO, who had been at the receiving end of the BJP leaders for alleged step-motherly treatment to them, would also be reshuffled soon,” he asserted.

The functionary said the party leadership wanted to put in place a cohesive and dedicated team in the CMO which could accelerate the pace of development in the run-up to the Parliamentary and Assembly polls next year.