Punjab divests Chief Secretary of Excise & Taxation Dept charge

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 12

In a damage-control exercise, the Punjab Government tonight divested Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh of the charge of Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

This comes a day after the Council of Ministers vowed not to attend any meeting where the Chief Secretary was present over his alleged misbehaviour with them.

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

As Prasad is presently on leave till May 20, Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary, Finance, will be in charge of the Taxation Department till then.This paves the way for announcement of liquor policy. Earlier, PPCC president Sunil Jakhar and MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had levelled conflict of interest charge against the Chief Secretary.