Punjab chief secy Karan Avtar divested of excise and taxation dept charge

Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 12

In a damage-control exercise, the Punjab government on Tuesday night divested its Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh of the charge of Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

The development follows a unanimous stand taken by Punjab Council of Ministers yesterday, saying they would not attend any meeting where the Chief Secretary was present.

The charge of the Excise and Taxation department has been given to A Venu Prasad, who will continue to also hold charge of Power, Mines and Geology and Water Resources department. Interestingly, the transfer orders have been issued by the Chief Secretary himself.

Prasad is presently on leave till May 20 and in his absence Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary, Finance, will be in charge of the Taxation department. This finally paces the way for announcement of liquor policy, which has been hanging fire because of the stand-off between political rulers and bureaucracy.

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Sources in the Punjab government have told The Tribune that parleys continued between various ministers throughout the day, with senior ministers approaching Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi for a rapprochement.

While Badal reportedly did not meet the CM’s emissary, because of his father’s ill health, a senior minister is learnt to have met Channi.

The decision to divest Karan Avtar Singh of the charge of taxation department seems to be aimed at calming the frayed nerves of ministers.

It had also become imperative in wake of the “conflict of interest” charge levelled against the chief Secretary by some ministers, PPCC president Sunil Jakhar and MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring. It remains to be seen whether the ministers and Congress MLAs will succumb to the pressure and agree at just the divestment of charge, or insist on their earlier stand of not attending any meeting in the presence of the CS.