Punjab’s Power Department is virtually lying powerless with both the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu adamant on their stand.
Just over a week after the Department was handed over to Sidhu after Capt Amarinder divested him of Local Government for being a “non-performer minister”, the former cricketer has refused to take charge, and the Chief Minister too is not budging from his stand, even with the advent of grueling summers and the crucial paddy season which requires certain significant decisions by the Power Department.
The Chief Minister, under the circumstances, is likely to take a “powerful stand” of taking over the charge of the Department, and head meetings till the time Sidhu does not assume the charge as Power Minister. In fact, as per the laid rules, the Chief Minister can take charge of a Department till the time the said Minister does not assume the office.
Sources informed The Pioneer that the Chief Minister’s Office would look after the Department, and hold departmental meetings with the officers, and as and when some decision making is required, the Chief Minister would chip in.
As the paddy sowing season has started from June 13, the State Government is committed to provide power supply to the farmers. At the same time, the Government also has to ensure availability of sufficient power in the state’s urban areas as the mercury is rising every passing day.
It has been learnt that Capt Amarinder may convene a meeting of the Power Department officials, including the state’s power utilities, to review the power situation in the State.
Sidhu has been sticking on his stand even after the party high command has asked him to continue his work for the party. It has been learnt that even as the party chief Rahul Gandhi had given Sidhu a patient hearing, that too at a time when he was not meeting with any one and in fact not even giving appointment to the Chief Minister, he has asked Sidhu to take over the charge of the Department.
Despite that, Sidhu has refused to take charge of the new portfolio allotted to him after recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. In fact, the state party leadership was not even making any efforts to appease Sidhu, or making any effort to get in touch with him.
To resolve the issue between Sidhu and Capt Amarinder, the party high command has assigned the responsibility to senior party leader Ahmed Patel, who has reportedly talked to the Chief Minister already.
Sidhu’s portfolios were changed hours after his “rebellious” decision to stay away from the Cabinet meeting, first after the 2019 general elections, while holding a simultaneous press conference to underscore his achievements as the Local Bodies Minister.
The action against Sidhu came just about a fortnight after Capt Amarinder squarely blamed “the non-performing” Local Bodies Minister for the Congress’ “not-so-good” performance in the state’s urban pockets.
Sidhu claimed that the Congress has fared well in the urban areas winning 63 percent of the total urban and semi-urban areas, winning 34 out of 54 seats. He had pointed that in the purely urban assembly segments, Congress won 64 percent by winning 16 out of 25 seats, while in the rural areas, the party bagged 35 out of 63 seats, making it 55 percent.
All along been claiming to have “changed” the working and condition of the Local Bodies Department which was without any funds and work in his two-year tenure, Sidhu had defended himself by maintaining that the Chief Minister had made him Minister in-charge of two districts — Amritsar and Tarn Taran — and the two were won by the Congress.
As Sidhu’s absence from the first Cabinet meeting after elections failed to go down well with his several Cabinet colleagues who described it as an act of “disobedience” and “disrespect” to the Chief Minister, Sidhu argued that had there been any agenda relating to his Department, “I would be the first one to go”.
Indicating that the Chief Minister has a lack of trust in him, Sidhu had asked why should he attend the meeting “when there is a trust deficit in me”.
“My seat in the Cabinet is few inches away...On can be too far while sitting close next to each other, while a mother and his son can be so close despite they being across the seven seas,” Sidhu had said in an indirect indication towards Capt Amarinder expressing his distrust against the former cricketer several times “publicly”.