Lambasting the Punjab government over its decision to replace the chief minister as the chairman of the urban development authorities with the chief secretary, the opposition parties on Sunday accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal of "maneuvering to consolidate his control" over the state.
Punjab Cabinet minister Harbhajan Singh hit back at the opposition parties, accusing them of making "baseless" and "misleading" statements to confuse the public for political gains.
The Punjab Cabinet on Saturday decided to delegate the chairmanship of all the urban development authorities to the chief secretary, saying this "bold reform" is aimed at strengthening decentralised governance, speeding up decision-making and empowering the administrative setup to act swiftly on ground-level issues.
The decision was based on a review of national models, where such bodies are headed by IAS officers or ministers, and not chief ministers, as seen in Ahmedabad, New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, Kanpur, and Bengaluru, among others.
Pertinently, the chief minister is the chairman of the development authorities but due to his busy engagements, sometimes the work of these bodies gets adversely affected, an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting said.
Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday condemned the Cabinet's decision and said "the chief secretary's expanded role is a direct assault on Punjab's self-respect".
"Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann hasn't just mortgaged Punjab's authority to Delhi's whims -- he has sold his soul for the perks and privileges of power. The @CsPunjab takes orders from Punjab Development Commission controlled by Delhiwalas, reducing the elected chief minister of Punjab to a mere puppet. This is a de facto coup of Punjab's democratic mandate," Bajwa alleged in a post on X.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh slammed the state government's move and described it as a "blatant bureaucratic coup executed to hand Punjab's assets to Kejriwal's coterie". The move is an open assault on democratic governance and an insult to Punjab's elected leadership, Chugh alleged in a statement.
"Will Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Cabinet now report to a bureaucrat? Has Punjab's Cabinet been reduced to a puppet show run by Kejriwal's inner circle," he questioned.
Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh said appointing the chief secretary as the chairman of all the local development authorities will accelerate the approval process for development-related matters and directly benefit the common people.
He also said this decision will facilitate swift action on development matters involving key institutions such as the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA), and Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA), thereby benefiting the people of the state.
Earlier, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal also condemned the AAP government's decision.
"This move is the final proof that Punjab is now being directly controlled by non-Punjabis and even the pretense of ruling through Bhagwant Mann has ended," he alleged.
Badal also alleged that it is common knowledge that Punjab's bureaucrats report directly to Kejriwal and his non-Punjabi associates.
"By appointing the chief secretary as chairman of all urban planning and development authorities in Punjab, including PUDA, GMADA, GLADA, JDA, BDA, ADA, PDA, and others, @BhagwantMann's meek and unabashed surrender to @ArvindKejriwal is now complete. He has handed over control of Punjab's lands and development funds to his Delhi boss through a bureaucrat, who is a close aide of Kejriwal," Badal claimed in a post on X.
"Never in Punjab's history has a bureaucrat been appointed chairman of any authority in which the chief minister and his ministers are ex-officio members. Will the chief minister and his Cabinet colleagues now attend meetings chaired by their subordinate officers," Badal asked.
"As president of Punjab's only regional party, Shiromani Akali Dal, I assure all Punjabis that we will strongly resist forcible acquisition by this non-Punjabi lobby through brazen abuse of govt power," he said in the post.
Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring accused the AAP government of "blatantly trying to weaken the institution of the chief minister by replacing him with an in-service bureaucrat to head various development boards, which will make them completely unaccountable to the public".
No excuse can justify replacing the chief minister with the chief secretary, he said "Where all will this stop," Warring asked, as he accused the AAP of undermining and eroding the authority of the constitutional position of the chief minister.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira also condemned the AAP government's decision and said "it marks a historic and alarming erosion of democratic principles, as it effectively sidelines the elected chief minister and hands over critical governance functions to a bureaucrat".
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)