‘Unease’ within govt as Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria meets Administrative Secretaries; AAP mum
Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 13
In an unprecedented move, Governor Gulab Chand Kataria today chaired a meeting of all Administrative Secretaries of the state. Though there has been no official word from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government, the meeting has created “unease in the corridors of power at the Punjab Civil Secretariat”.
The Governor did not reportedly say anything negative about the state government. He only sought details about the status of various centrally sponsored schemes, besides asking how much funds have been utilised under those schemes by the departments headed by those Administrative Secretaries.
Each one of them was asked to give a brief speech on the issue. The Governor is also learnt to have asked all officers to work honestly and for public good. Yesterday, the Governor held a meeting with officials of the Central Government departments, including the National Highways Authority of India, and sought reasons for delay in the construction of highways in the state.
In the recent history, there has been no instance of the Governor convening a meeting of government officers. It was perhaps only during the period of Governor’s rule in the state that the then Governors directly convened such meetings.
However, Governor Kataria, who has had a long stint as a minister in Rajasthan, had also been regularly convening meetings of officers while he served as the Governor of Assam.
At today’s meeting, he sought details of the ex-servicemen living in villages along the International Border from the Defence Welfare Department. Details of the posts of Vice-Chancellor lying vacant in state-run universities were sought from the Higher Education Department Secretary.
According to the information gathered by The Tribune, the message for the meeting was sent to 28 Administrative Secretaries, besides the Chief Secretary Anurag Verma and Special Chief Secretary to Chief Minister VK Singh, last evening.
Twenty-five Secretaries attended the meeting. Both Verma and Singh could not attend the meeting because of their prior commitment to a meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann regarding the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. It is learnt that the Chief Secretary, however, made a courtesy call on Governor Kataria at Punjab Raj Bhawan this morning.
The Governor reportedly told the officers, “The Review meetings regarding central development works and public welfare schemes will be held from time to time. I will act as a bridge between the Centre and the state.”
