Deadlock over chief secy deepens as Cong leaders press for probe

Cooperation minister Sukhjinder Randhawa, Punjab Cong chief Sunil Jakhar and at least 8 ruling party MLAs back demand for immediate removal of officer as state’s top bureaucrat

A day after Punjab chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh was relieved of the additional charge of financial commissioner, taxation, the stalemate between the ruling Congress leaders and the state government on Wednesday deepened with several of them demanding a probe into revenue losses in the excise department in the past three years.

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State cooperation and jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar were among those who backed the demand for immediate removal of Karan Avtar, a 1984-batch IAS officer, from the post of chief secretary besides an inquiry into the decisions taken by the excise department.

Besides the two, Congress MLAs Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Raj Kumar Verka, Joginder Pal, Balwinder Singh Laddi, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Barinder Singh Pahra, Fatehjang Singh Bajwa and Kulbir Singh Zira also pressed for the demands.

The logjam was triggered by a showdown between the chief secretary, who also held the charge of financial commissioner, taxation, and two ministers — Manpreet Singh Badal (finance) and Charanjit Singh Channi (technical education) at a pre-cabinet meeting last week over some changes in the state excise policy to provide relief to liquor contractors for the lockdown period. The ministers expressed reservations over the proposed changes and stormed out of the meeting, objecting to the chief secretary’s demeanour.

At Monday’s cabinet meeting, they demanded Karan Avtar’s removal with some other party leaders alleging that he had “conflict of interest”, seeking a probe into revenue losses in the last three years. Even as Amarinder relieved the chief secretary of the additional charge of financial commissioner, taxation, after his showdown with some ministers and Warring’s allegations that the officer’s son had business interests in liquor trade, the move failed to placate the party leaders. Warring, who had thanked Amarinder for relieving thee officer of the additional charge, was the first one to demand an inquiry against him on Wednesday for revenue losses of Rs 600 crore in the excise department. “..kindly remove him from his post of chief secretary so that he is unable to influence the enquiry,” he posted on Twitter.