Convention being ignored in filling Chandigarh admn posts: Punjab CM

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann has urged governor Banwarilal Purohit to follow the convention and maintain the 60:40 ratio between Punjab and Haryana while filling posts in Chandigarh administration

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has urged governor Banwarilal Purohit to follow the convention and maintain the 60:40 ratio between Punjab and Haryana while filling posts in the Chandigarh administration.

The statement has come at a time when Mann is being accused of surrendering Punjab’s claim over Chandigarh.

According to a statement, he in a letter to the governor said by Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers from the AGMUT cadre are being posted on the most important posts, which were earlier held by officers from the Punjab cadre.

Mann urged the governor to personally look into the matter so that the IAS officers from Punjab cadre on deputation with the Chandigarh administration are assigned departments as per the “well laid out convention and without any discrimination”.

The AGMUT cadre IAS officers serve in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories. The Punjab governor is also the administrator of Chandigarh.

The statement has come at a time when Mann is being accused of surrendering Punjab’s claim over Chandigarh, which is a UT and serves as the joint capital of both states. In his letter to the governor, Mann said following the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966, officers are generally taken on inter-cadre deputation with the approval of the Centre against some posts such as home secretary, finance secretary, deputy commissioner and the municipal commissioner.

In the past, posts of the finance secretary and the municipal commissioner were filled by IAS officers from the Punjab cadre while those of the home secretary and the deputy commissioner held by IAS officers from the Haryana cadre, he said.

Mann said these officers are chosen after a rigorous selection process and they are given charges of various key departments as well. Over the past a few years, it has been noticed that the strength of IAS officers from the AGMUT cadre has been consistently increasing in the administration and they hold most important posts, which were earlier with the Punjab-cadre IAS officers, Mann said.