CHANDIGARH: After “functioning” without offices for nearly two months, the 14 Punjab Ministers hunting for office accommodation, arc being finally provided offices in the main Civil Secretariat building itself here.
‘These Ministers, all holding the rank of Deputy Minister, were sworn in during the first week of January to be a part of the 43member jumbo Ministry headed by Harcharan Singh Brar, ‘They had been resisting all efforts to , make them agree to have offices out” Side the Secretariat building of the shortage of accommodation in the building.
Efforts were made to provide offices for them in the adjoining Vidhan Sabha complex, which were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Speaker, Hamam Das Johar, and also at the Punjab government Guest House in Sector 39. The new Ministers were of the view that location of offices there would lead to “practical problems.” ‘They have now prevailed upon the Chief Minister to create office space for them in the building for their “smooth functioning.” Making way for them would be some senior officers, who have been asked to shift either to the Mini Secretariat in Sector 9 or to the headquarters of Boards or Corporations headed by them. Some of them have already moved out of the Secretariat building. With the Civil Secretariat building housing a large posse of Punjab Ministers, besides those of Haryana, a bureaucrat quipped that the building should now be called “Ministeriat instead of the Secretarial.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 6, 1996
