With the more than three-month-old government facing criticism over the law and order situation and administrative inexperience in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday ordered a top-level bureaucratic change and a massive reshuffle in its administrative machinery.
Punjab Chief Secretary Anirudh Tiwari has been transferred and appointed as 1989 batch IAS officer VK Janjua. The previous Congress-led government led by Charanjit Singh Channi had appointed Tiwari as the chief secretary. Though he was appointed by the Congress regime, he was getting the support of the newly elected AAP-led government in the state. However, now under pressure from the government to handle various administrative issues, Tiwari was transferred.
Tiwari, a 1990 batch IAS officer, had superseded five of his senior officers when he was elected by the previous government in September 2021. Janjua has been selected on the basis of his seniority. A day after Tiwari’s removal, the state government appointed Gaurav Yadav as the caretaker DGP. Yadav removed five officers from his cadre.
The Mann-led government has also made changes at the top of Punjab’s intelligence department. The head of the wing, DGP Prabodh Kumar, was dropped and replaced by IG Jatinder Aulakh, who was to be promoted as ADGP from January this year. The transfer orders include other DGPs who, being senior to the existing officiating DGPs, could not be posted directly under them.
The state’s intelligence wing had recently faced severe criticism not only because of the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala but also because of the grenade attack on the intelligence headquarters in Mohali district, which was considered a major factor in anticipating and preventing terrorist attacks in Punjab. was seen as a major failure.
Speaking in the state assembly recently, Mann announced comprehensive law and order reforms as he reiterated his desire to eliminate gangster culture from the state. Mann had said that the state government is duty bound to check gangster activities in the state.
Mann has vowed that he will not rest in peace till those who do desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib are not put behind the bars. “Insult of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji on the holy land of Punjab is a blot on us. This inhuman crime is unimaginable and unforgivable, the culprits of which can never be spared,” he said during the Mission Sunehra Punjab Conclave organized by a news channel today.
Mann said that the best officers will conduct further investigation in the matter and the best lawyers will fight the case in court to ensure that the culprits do not escape the gallows.
Describing gangsters as a “national problem”, he said that all states will have to join hands to stop this menace. Mann said his government has already developed a foolproof strategy to deal with the menace.
The Chief Minister said that there is no ‘credit war’ to end organized gangs as every state is sensitive to it. Attacking the Congress and the Akalis for “promoting gangster culture”, Mann said both these parties have “preserved gangster culture for their vested interests”.
read all breaking news, today’s fresh newswatch top videos And live TV Here.