Ex CM Bhattal gets Cabinet rank, appointed PSPB vice chairperson

Former Punjab Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal on Wednesday appointed as Punjab State Planning Board’s vice-chairperson in the rank and status of Cabinet Minister.

The notification was issued by the Finance Department on the directives of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, after following due procedure and taking into consideration her eligibility for the post. 

As per the notification, Bhattal’s appointment would be effective from the date she assumes the charge of her assignment.

The detailed terms and conditions of her appointment would be determined in due course, the notification read.

Bhattal, who lost 2017 state assembly polls to SAD’s Parminder Singh Dhindsa from her bastion Lehra Gaga, would be among the former ministers or former MLAs to get the political appointment.

With the appointment, Bhattal would be eligible for all the benefits entitled to a cabinet rank minister including a government accommodation.

The Council of Ministers is likely to discuss in the its next meeting the issue of waiving off penal rent of the last year due from Bhattal on account of staying in government bungalow in Sector 2.

In 2017, the Cabinet had already waived of Rs 84 lakh on account of her penal rent.

Notably, a penal rent of Rs 84 lakh was imposed on Bhattal, which she had to deposit in February last year to seek the no-dues certificate for becoming eligible to contest 2017 assembly elections, which she lost. But after the Congress government came to power, the state Cabinet on September 20, 2017, decided to pay back the amount to Bhattal.

Bhattal’s appointment to the coveted post was apparently made to enable the State Government to allow her to retain the government accommodation in Chandigarh’s high-security Sector-2 allotted to the senior Congress leader, which is just behind Punjab Chief Minister’s official residence.

However, the State Government has denied the same saying that the appointment was made on account of her vast experience and expertise in state administration as former Chief Minister.

Notably, the Supreme Court has set a deadline for all the State Governments to get the houses allotted to former Chief Ministers evicted.

The Sector-2 house was allotted to Bhattal in 2012 by the then Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal from the Chief Minister’s pool on security ground after the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered her to vacate another house in Sector-2 (House No 46).

House No 46 in Sector 2 was meant for the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and Bhattal, who is not even an MLA now, had been living there even after she was no longer the Leader of Opposition.

The erstwhile SAD-BJP government had two posts of vice-chairperson in the State Planning Board, of which one was earlier held by eminent industrialist Rajinder Gupta and another by Punjab BJP’s former president Prof Rajinder Bhandari.

Consequent upon Bhandari’s resignation, one of the two posts of Board’s vice chairperson had fallen vacant, which has now been filled with Bhattal’s appointment.