In his the first Cabinet meeting on Saturday, Punjab Chief Minister Mann approved filling up 25,000 vacant posts in various State Departments, including 10,000 in the police force. The process of advertisement and notification for these jobs would be initiated within a month, he said.
“In the coming days, we will also fulfil our rest of the guarantees (poll promises),’’ he added. The Chief Minister said 10,000 jobs will be given in the Punjab Police and the rest in various other departments, boards and corporations. He said the jobs will be given on merit.
Unemployment has been one of the major issues that his Aam Aadmi Party had raised during the just-concluded State Assembly polls. The party had promised to take the first Cabinet decision of offering jobs after it came to power.
The Mann Cabinet expanded to 11 on Saturday with ten MLAs being inducted in the Cabinet as Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to them at Punjab Bhawan here.
All of them took the oath in Punjabi. Barring Harpal Singh Cheema and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, eight others are first-time MLAs.
Cheema, a legislator from Dirba, was the first to take oath followed by Dr Baljit Kaur, the lone woman in the Cabinet and MLA from Malout. Next to take the oath was Harbhajan Singh from Jandiala, followed by Dr Vijay Singla from Mansa, Lal Chand from Bhoa, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer from Barnala, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Ajnala, Laljit Singh Bhullar from Patti, Bram Shanker Jimpa from Hoshiarpur and Harjot Singh Bains from Anandpur Sahib.
There are 18 berths in the Cabinet, including the Chief Minister, but Bhagwant Mann has gone for a lean Cabinet.
Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann were among those present at the event.
Punjab Governor Purohit had on Wednesday administered the oath of office and secrecy to Mann in a swearing-in ceremony at Khatkar Kalan, the village of Bhagat Singh.
In the Cabinet, the party gave representation to five MLAs from Malwa, four from Majha and one from the Doaba region. It has accommodated four MLAs who represent reserve constituencies — Dirba, Jandiala, Malout and Bhoa.
However, the AAP MLAs who defeated stalwarts, including Congress’ Charanjit Singh Channi, Navjot Singh Sidhu, SAD’s Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal and Punjab Lok Congress chief Amarinder Singh, did not find a place in the Cabinet. Mann had announced the names of MLAs who will be inducted into the cabinet on Friday.
Of the Cabinet members, Harpal Singh Cheema is a two-time legislator from Dirba and the party’s Dalit face. He had been the Leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly. An advocate by profession, Cheema defeated Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Gulzar Singh Moonak from the Dirba Assembly seat.
Two-time Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer is the president of the AAP’s youth wing. He defeated SAD nominee Kulwant Singh Keetu. Others are first time MLAs.
The Cabinet also cleared the presentation of supplementary demands for grants for the year 2021-22 to be presented in the ensuing Assembly session.
This decision would provide a Budget for additional or excess expenditure incurred by various departments during the financial year 2021-22 to liquidate the pending liabilities. Further, in accordance with the provisions contained in Clause (3) of Article 203 of the Constitution of India, the Cabinet also gave the approval to present the Supplementary Demands for Grants of the Government of Punjab for the year 2021-22.