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Another letter bomb: Now, Punjab guv questions Mann govt’s home delivery of atta plan
Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit shot off a letter to chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday on the state government’s plan for doorstep delivery of wheat flour, seeking its reply to a letter sent last year by his office pointing out anomalies in the scheme
Chandigarh : Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit shot off a letter to chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday on the state government’s plan for doorstep delivery of wheat flour, seeking its reply to a letter sent last year by his office pointing out anomalies in the scheme.
Purohit, while pointing out once again the chief minister’s “constant failure” to respond to official letters from the Raj Bhawan, said his principal secretary, sent the communication to the state chief secretary last year on the scheme for providing home delivery of atta instead of wheat grains, but has not got any response.
“It is brought to my notice that through a new scheme, atta will be delivered at doorsteps through fair price shops and other modalities are also finalised…on my instructions, the principal secretary, Raj Bhawan, wrote to the chief secretary on this issue on September 24, 2022, and no reply has been received so far,” he wrote to Mann.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had drawn plans last year to start home delivery of atta but faced opposition. On September 24, JM Balamurugan, the then principal secretary to the governor, sent a letter to the chief secretary, asking for a detailed status report on serious anomalies such as loss of jobs, quality concerns, and lack of clarity on by-products, pointed out in the scheme by leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa.
The government put the plan on hold after the fair price shop owners moved the Punjab and Haryana high court against the scheme to be implemented through newly appointed delivery agencies.
The government has now brought a revised mechanism for distribution of packaged flour or wheat at the doorsteps of beneficiaries through fair price shops. The governor’s letter came three days after the state cabinet approved the revised plan.
Purohit also expressed distress over the CM’s indifference and consistent failure to respond officially to letters sent by him (governor) or his office. Referring to a picture of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar in the CM’s office, he invoked the architect of the Constitution of India and reminded Mann about what he (Ambedkar) said about the functioning of the office of governor.
“His duties may be classified in two parts. One is, that he has to retain the ministry in office. Because the ministry is to hold office during his pleasure, he has to see whether and when he should exercise his pleasure against the ministry. The second duty which the governor has, and must have, is to advise the ministry, to warn the ministry, to suggest to the ministry an alternative and to ask for reconsideration,” the governor gave an extract from the judgement of the Supreme Court, which quoted from Ambedkar’s speech on Article 167 in the Constituent Assembly.
It further said: “He is the representative not of a party, he is representative of the people as a whole of the state. It is in the name of the people that he carries on the administration. He must see that the administration is carried on a level which may be regarded as good, efficient, honest administration. Therefore, having regard to these two duties which the governor has namely, to see that the administration is kept pure, without corruption, impartial, and that the proposals enunciated by the ministry are not contrary to the wishes of the people.” He cannot discharge the constitutional functions of a governor unless he is in a position to obtain the information, it added.
The governor expressed hope that the CM will reply to his letters as even after a lapse of about six months since he sought information under Article 167 of the Constitution, nothing has been heard from the government.
Referring to Mann’s speech in the state assembly during which he called the governor ‘velha’, Purohit said that any abusive or derogatory words are not going to deter him from discharging his constitutional duty as governor.
