Chief Minister Amarinder Singh hosts lunch for Manpreet Badal, Charanjit Channi

Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 25

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh hosted lunch for Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Channi at his Siswan farmhouse on Monday.

The lunch assumes significance in light of the alleged misbehaviour by Chief Secretary Karan Avtar with ministers.

It is being assumed that lunch has paved way for rapprochement between the top bureaucrat and the ministers. It was Manpreet Singh Badal along with Channi and Sukhjinder Randhawa who had abruptly ended a meeting on excise after alleged misbehaviour of the officer.

A cabinet meeting is expected to be called in the coming days by the Chief minister to officially bury the hatchet between the minister and the top bureaucrat.

On May 21, the chief minister had hosted lunch for Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and Gidderbaha MLA Raja Warring, who led a bitter attack on Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh on Twitter.

Sources in the government claimed that the chief minister’s luncheon diplomacy paid off and the standoff between the ministers and the Chief Secretary was now over. A cabinet meeting is expected to be called in the coming days by the chief minister to officially bury the hatchet between the minister and the top bureaucrat.