Sukhbir to meet public every Wednesday
Alarmed by the ruling combine’s ‘not-so-good’ performance in the lok Sabha polls, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal has decided to lend an ear to the people, and restructure the party organisation.
SAD chief would now be available to listen to the people’s grievances at large on every Wednesday at the party’s head office in Chandigarh. Besides, the Cabinet Ministers have been asked to hold the monthly meetings in the districts.
The decisions were taken on the concluding day of the three-day party’s review exercise to analyze the results of the lok Sabha elections.
“I would be available at the party office on every Wednesday from 11 am to 4 pm and anyone could approach me during this period. I have also decided to keep myself free on every Monday and Tuesday for official work only, and I request the people not to visit the office on these days so that I can concentrate on official work,” said Sukhbir.
He added that Thursday and Friday would be kept aside for visits to various parts of Punjab.
The decision to meet public on every Wednesday was taken to keep a close watch on the administration following feedback by the SAD leadership.
In another major decision, all the Cabinet ministers would be made in-charge of one district each and that they would hold meetings in these districts in the first week of every month.
The party, during the course of the three-day exercise, also decided to form a lean organization structure to make it more responsible and effective. It was felt that since the district jathedar and the circle jathedars were the real pivots around which a political party revolved, these should be finalized by next month.
It was also decided that the SAD-BJP government should move with “lightning speed” to weed out corruption in all departments in which public dealing was involved. Accordingly, it was resolved that all employees posted for long periods in departments like power, local bodies, police and revenue would be changed forthwith.
Clean and honest employees with a good track record will be chosen to fill these posts.
Senior Akali leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal admitted that the party suffered because false and malicious charges had been levelled against the senior party leadership which could not be defended adequately. “The party suffered on this issue as well on the issue of sand and gravel even though the majority of people in the sand business are Congressmen,” he added.