CHANDIGARH: Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today said the very fact that minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal did not know that the Administrative Reforms department allotted to him since the last twenty months did not exist spoke volumes about the state of governance under the Aam Aadmi Party.
In a statement here, Mr Bikram Majithia said it was shocking that this anomaly came to light after the Governor restored this department. “Mr Kuldeep Dhaliwal owes an explanation to Punjabis as to why he had remained oblivious to this fact even though the department was allocated to him 20 months back. This only proves that he did not call a meeting of the department for twenty months nor did he carry out any administrative reforms in the State”.
Asserting that this had exposed the governance model of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, Mr Bikram Majithia said “it also shows that AAP ministers in Punjab are not involved in the running of their departments and that the same are run by remote control from Delhi”. He said it was due to this complete surrender of State authority to the Delhi high command that Punjab had become severely indebted with the State debt reaching Rs 3.75 lakh crore. “Administrative reforms, which are very much needed to cut red tape and ensure all services reach citizens in a time bound manner, are also not being done”.