Admn rejig leaves Punjab's Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district without a single SDM

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, September 10

In an unusual move, Thursday’s rejig of the bureaucratic officials has left all three posts of SDM in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) district – Nawanshahr, Banga and Balachaur – vacant.

The officials got transferred sans any replacement, which usually has been a norm earlier.

Banga SDM Navneet Bal had already been transferred as Estate Officer of Jalandhar Development Authority last month. She has now been further transferred as Bholath SDM. Her charge was being handled by Nawanshahr SDM Baljinder Singh Dhillon. But on Thursday, Dhillon also was transferred as Estate Officer of Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority. Balachaur SDM Suba Singh also got moved out as Lehragaga SDM.

Since there has been no replacement given for these posts for the past two days, it has left the district without any SDM. Even the post of Assistant Commissioner in the district which is usually filled by a PCS officer is lying vacant. There is only one PCS officer left in the district – Rajiv Verma, holding the charge as Additional Deputy Commissioner.

The situation became such that Nawanshahr DC Navjot Pal Singh Randhawa on Friday had to hand over the SDMs’ charge temporarily to the tehsildars.

As an exigency plan and to handle any law and order situation, the charge of the Nawanshahr SDM was given to the Nawanshahr tehsildar, that of the Balachaur SDM to the Balachaur tehsildar and of the Banga SDM to the Banga naib tehsildar.

The officials said, “Though Nawanshahr is a small district, it assumes importance as it has 66 km of stretch connecting Chandigarh falling on the highway. There can be VVIP visits or any other emergency, for which the officials have to be deputed.”

DC Randhawa said, “We are handling the situation well and everything is in place. We expect replacements anytime now.”