A month after Navjot Singh Sidhu was divested of the charge of Local Government Department, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has appointed senior Congress leaders as the chairpersons of four Improvement Trusts — Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.
Sidhu had dissolved all the Improvement Trusts in the state and relieved chairpersons and trustees across the State, months after taking over the charge of Local Government Department in 2017. In the place of chairpersons, Sidhu had handed over their work to the government officials designated as Administrators “to ensure greater transparency and efficiency in the working of these trusts”.
At that time, Sidhu, as the Local Government Minister, had ordered that the Trusts would be headed by the Administrators, which would be the Deputy Commissioners or the Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) appointed by the government, till further orders. Since then, IAS and PCS officers were heading these trusts.
Besides these four appointments, the government would appoint more senior leaders as chairpersons in 26 other improvement trusts.
The names were announced after a meeting between the Chief Minister, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, and state party affairs in-charge Asha Kumari on Monday evening.
The Chief Minister has cleared the name of Sant Banga, a close confidant of the state’s Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra, as Patiala Improvement Trust chairperson. Besides, Dinesh Bassi has been appointed as Amritsar Improvement Trust chairperson,
Daljit Ahluwalia as Jalandhar Improvement Trust chairperson, and Raman Balasubramaniam as Ludhiana Improvement Trust chairperson. Available information suggests that more than 100 posts in various government corporations, boards, and other bodies would be given to the party leaders in the coming months.