Half-way for Capt sarkar

The biggest achievement of his government had been the building of confidence, Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh had said some time back. His party had come back to power riding the crest of the popular wave that had turned against the SAD-BJP combine because of the sacrilege incidents, allegations of drug trade and deviation from development. The Congress coming to power amid the BJP surge was a good sign. The party will now have to look for ways to consolidate its position. The row over the appointment of six legislators as advisers to the CM, in the rank of minister, looking for ways to exclude their appointment from the office of profit, and then, withdrawing orders for providing them with staff, has snowballed. The idea was to contain disaffection within the party, for the MLAs were reported to be upset with bureaucrats, with PCC chief Sunil Jakhar also saying power needed to be ‘reclaimed’. Jakhar had resigned as PCC president after the defeat in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha poll, but was asked to stay put. Sonia Gandhi back at the helm also bodes well for the CM. With her proclivity for the old guard, his hold should remain intact.

The CM had favoured continuity in administration, earlier asking Suresh Arora to continue as the DGP and Suresh Kumar as Chief Principal Secretary. Harpreet Sidhu was brought back as the STF chief to fight the drug menace. But this made ministers and MLAs unhappy. The government emerged unscathed from the Navjot Singh Sidhu controversy with the Kartarpur project on track and the CM able to reshuffle portfolios. 

Recession shadow is on the state, with GST and motor tax collection registering a fall, and revenue generation remaining a challenge. Not much headway has been made on issues like mining, drugs, transport and sacrilege. Earlier, a party legislator had blamed the floods in the Sutlej on the BBMB Chairman not being from Punjab. The apprehension is over the Congress meeting the same fate as that of the Akalis. With his experience in taking on the SAD, Amarinder remains well entrenched, but a sense of drift should be prevented from setting in. He needs to urgently address scandals over monopoly in the transportation sector and the explosive drug situation.