More than 48 hours after swearing-in of his newly-constituted Cabinet, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, on Tuesday, finally allocated portfolios to his Ministers while keeping 14 departments, including Vigilance, Power, Mining, and Excise with himself. While allocating the portfolios, the Chief Minister handed over significant departments to his two Deputies and the first-timers.
The crucial Home portfolio has been allocated to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, along with the Jails and Cooperation Departments he was heading in the previous Cabinet, led by Capt Amarinder Singh.
Deputy Chief Minister OP Soni has been given Health and Family Welfare, which was earlier with Balbir Singh Sidhu. Notably, Sidhu is among five Ministers dropped in the new cabinet constituted by Charanjit Singh Channi. Along with health, Soni gets Defence Services Welfare and Freedom Fighters.
The senior-most leader Brahm Mohindra has been able to retain his departments of Local Government, Parliamentary Affairs, and Elections, he was heading the previous Capt Amarinder Government. So as Manpreet Singh Badal, who again get Finance portfolio. In addition, Manpreet gets Governance Reforms, Planning and Programme Implementation.
It has been learnt that Manpreet was quite reluctant to once again handle the Finance Department, but considering his experience in handling the state’s fiscal affairs, he emerged as an obvious choice. It has also been learnt that Manpreet was also interested in the Excise and Taxation department, which has been split in two— with Excise with Channi and Taxation with Manpreet.
Among the Ministers retained by Channi, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa too gets the same portfolios of Rural Development and Panchayats, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development. Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria was divested of Mining portfolio, while his remaining departments remain the same including Water Resources and Urban Development. Bharat Bhudhan Ashu also retained Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
Among the female Ministers, Razia Sultana also retained Water Supply and Sanitation; with new departments of Social Security, Women and Child Development and Printing and Stationery. Aruna Chaudhary, however, gets Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, which was earlier with Gurpreet Singh Kangar who has been dropped.
Channi has given his previous portfolio of Technical Education and Industrial Training and Employment Generation and Training to Rana Gurjit Singh, who has made a comeback in the Cabinet three years after he resigned facing allegations in the sand mining scandal. Along with that, Rana Gurjit gets Horticulture, Soil and Water Conservation.
Despite performing well, education portfolio has been taken away from Vijay Inder Singla, but retains Public Works along with Administrative Reforms.
Education has been allocated to Pargat Singh — the first time Minister. He gets School Education, Higher Education, Sports and Youth Services and NRI Affairs.
Among the first-timers, Randeep Singh Nabha gets agriculture, Dr Raj Kumar Verka gets Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, New and Renewable Energy Resources and Medical Education and Research. Sangat Singh Gilzian has been given Forests and Labour. Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has got the Transport department, while Gurkirat Singh Kotli has been given Industries and Commerce, Information Technology and Science and Technology.
After the change of guard in the state followed by a massive crisis within the state Congress unit, Channi took oath as the Chief Minister on September 20.