With 21 key depts at CMO, Khullar emerges 'all-powerful'

Emerging even more powerful in the new Nayab Singh Saini government, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister (CPSCM) and former IAS officer Rajesh Khullar has got the lion's share in work distribution in the CM's office.

Advertisement

He has netted 21 "heavyweight" departments in the orders of work allocation here today.

While Khullar has emerged "all powerful", indicating who is going to call the shots in the CMO, PSCM Arun Gupta, Additional PSCM Saket Kumar and Deputy PSCM Yash Pal are nearly in the same bracket, getting nine, eight and seven departments each, respectively. The order comes following last week's appointments in the CMO.

Khullar, who has also served as CPSCM to Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar when he was CM in the previous BJP government, has been allocated several key departments, including Energy, Finance, Administration of Justice, Ayush, Excise and Taxation, General Administration, Personnel & Training, Hospitality and Vigilance Health, Home, Industries & Commerce, Information, Public Relations, Languages and Culture, Irrigation and Water Resources, Medical Education and Research, Parliamentary Affairs, Law & Legislative, Public Health Engineering, Public Works (Building & Roads), Revenue and Disaster Management, Social Justice, Empowerment, SCs & BCs Welfare and Antyodaya (SEWA) and Town & Country Planning and Urban Estates Department.

He will also be the overall in charge of the CMO, all matters relating to legislative business, including legislative proposals taken before the Council of Ministers and issue of ordinances, as also subjects not allotted to any other officer.

Gupta has got Civil Aviation, Cooperation, Environment, Forests & Wildlife, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Housing for All, Mines & Geology, Transport, Urban Local Bodies, Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship and works related to implementation of CM's announcements.

Kumar has been assigned work related to Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Development & Panchayats, Elections, Fisheries Foreign Cooperation, Sainik & Ardh Sainik Welfare, Women & Child Development, as also Kurukshetra

Development Board and monitoring the performance of various departments under CM Window.

Yash Pal has got Architecture, Archives, Heritage and Tourism, Higher Education, Printing & Stationery, School Education, Sports and Saraswati Heritage Board.

HCS officer and OSD to CM Vivek Kalia will look after CM Window and Jan Samvaad while HCS officer and OSD to CM Sudhanshu Gautam will handle work related to the allotment of government houses (except Type-V, Panchkula), CM's announcements, CM Relief Fund, HRDF & other sanctions and HRMS, Online Transfer Policy and Wakf Board.

HCS officer Rakesh Sandhu will handle CM Window and Grievances.