CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s generous announcements of populist schemes and projects at public meetings have put the State administration, already neck deep in debt, in a fix.
Alarmed at the plethora of promises made by Beant Singh, the Chief Minister’s Secretariat has issued a circular to all departments saying that only written instructions issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat with a proper dispatch and file number be followed.
This action was necessary because Beant Singh has reportedly put his signature of approval on thousands of applications brought to him for transfers, appointments, projects, sanctions, etc. by hand and which have no official record. The applicants are pestering the State officials to comply with the orders, putting the administration in an awkward position.
Earlier, verbal instructions to officials were to consider only those cases about which the Chief Minister spoke to the officer concerned personally, however, with applicants insisting that the Chief Minister speak to the concerned officer in their presence, the new circular was necessary.
Ala meeting last week, Punjab administrative secretaries decided to request the Chief Minister to take the Finance Department and the concerned administrative secretary into confidence before making any public announcement, The administrative secretaries have also asked the Deputy Commissioners of district concerned to caution the Chief Minister against conceding demands which could not be implemented.
Several promises by the Chief Minister will never be implemented. Out of the nearly 500 announcements in the last one year, barely a hundred have been implemented and another 60odd are under consideration. Most announcements will eventually be abandoned. The departments concerned have already declared nearly two dozen announcements as “not feasible.” For example, a sessions court cannot be set up in a tehsil because the Punjab and Haryana High Court here made it clear that a sessions court will function in a district headquarter.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 15, 1993
