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New governments take over in Punjab, Uttarakhand

	March 12, 2007

New governments have assumed office in Punjab and Uttarakhand and headed straight for trouble.



Within days of becoming Chief Minister of Punjab at the head of an 18-member Ministry, the Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal got a major jolt when a court in Ropar ordered framing of charges against him in a disproportionate assets case.



In a major setback on March 9, special judge G.S. Saran also ordered framing of charges against Sukhbir Badal and Surinder Kaur, the MP-son and wife of the Chief Minister and others for having disproportionate assets amounting to over Rs 78.39 crore.



The cases against the Badals and their associates had been filed during the reign of the Capt. Amarinder Singh-led Congress Government.



Despite protracted efforts by some lawyers in the prosecution team and the defence, special judge Saran dismissed the plea by both for further probe in the case in view of the Income Tax Department reports submitted by the Badals, which reportedly gave them a clean chit in the case.



The judge ordered that charges should be framed under all eight clauses cited by the prosecution in its proposed chargesheet, which was submitted by special public prosecutor A.P.S. Deol.



Terming their application as premature, the judge dismissed the plea of Badal’s counsel to declare the status of the witnesses who were public servants as accused in the case.



Pronouncing his order in a jam-packed court, the special judge ordered the framing of charges against the Badals and six other accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Charges under Section 120-B were also framed against Jagnandan Singh in the case.



While the Chief Minister, members of his family and another accused Gurpinder Singh Garewal were not present in the court, six other accused were present in the court.



The accused present in the court signed a copy of the charges framed against them. As for the Badal family, judge Saran directed them to be present in the court on the next date of hearing on March 13.



The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) had filed a challan against the Badals for accumulating assets worth over Rs 78.39 crore, in connivance with other accused, between 1997 and 2002, when Badal was the Chief Minister. Besides the disproportionate assets, the VB also accused the Badals of indulging in various other corrupt acts, including the misuse of authority in making postings and transfers of public servants.





Not to quit : Badal



Reacting to the framing of charges against him, Badal said that he has “full faith” in the judiciary. Speaking in New Delhi on March 10, he ruled out any possibility of his resignation over the issue. “Why should I quit”, Badal said after meeting President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He pointed out that there were several Ministers in the Union Cabinet against whom charges had been framed.



Badal claimed that there was no substance in the charges that he had acquired wealth beyond his means. He alleged that former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had acted in a vindictive manner.



When asked whether he would repay the Congress leader in the same manner, Badal said he was not vindictive. But he recalled that two cases - one civil and one criminal - were pending against Amarinder Singh. He said, “the law will take its own course.”



Reports say that the Punjab Government is to investigate three major land deals carried out during the tenure of the previous Amarinder Singh-led government. Sources in Chandigarh said that an enquiry will be conducted through the Vigilance Bureau which has now a new officer Sumedh Singh Saini heading it. The ruling Akali Dal alleges that the Amarinder Singh Government gave huge concessions to private builders at the cost of the public exchequer. The deals which are to be probed are the Ludhiana City Centre scandal, permission given for change of land use to a Mohali based builder despite the fact that he did not own the piece of land and the exemption from acquisition given to a large chunk of land on the Amritsar-Jalandhar Highway.





Portfolios allocated



In the allocation of portfolios announced on March 7, Parkash Singh Badal retained with him ten portfolios including Home, Housing and Urban Development, Excise and Taxation and Power. Four time MLA, Manpreet Singh Badal was made Finance Minister. Observers say that many of the new Ministers are unhappy as Badal has kept most of the important ministries with himself or with family members.



Another bombshell dropped by Badal after becoming Chief Minister was that the state government will annul all previous river water agreements. This has led to controversy with Union Water Resources Minister Saffiuddin Soz saying that the Punjab Government should await the Supreme Court order on sharing the river waters with neighbouring states before taking any decision on scrapping Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act, 2004.



The provision allows Haryana and Rajasthan to get water as per their share existing in 2004. Haryana reacted by filing an application in the Supreme Court for speedy hearing on the Presidential Reference on the validity of the legislation. State Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that Badal cannot go against the Constitution.





Uttarakhand : Two member cabinet sworn in



A two member cabinet headed by retired Major General B.C. Khanduri was sworn in by State Governor Sudarshan Aggarwal on March 8. Along with Khanduri, one Cabinet rank Minister, Prakash Pant, also assumed office. A galaxy of BJP leaders including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, party president Rajnath Singh, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh as well as NDA convener George Fernandes were present at the ceremony. One dampener was Khanduri’s reported inability to persuade his rival Bhagat Singh Koshiyari to accept either the post of Deputy Chief Minister or the Assembly Speaker’s job. Koshiyari said: “Yes, I was asked to become either deputy CM or Speaker. But I have refused and have told the leadership that I will help the government from outside.”



This would mean he is, at least at present, keen on staying out of the Cabinet. This could be a cause for concern for BJP leaders and it indicates that the former CM is yet to reconcile to losing the leadership stakes.



He has made no bones about his view that he felt that he enjoys majority support of BJP MLAs and is better qualified for the top job.



With Koshiyari holding out, BJP sources agreed that Khanduri’s shift to the post of CM could be troublesome. The party fears that victory over the Congress in Uttarakhand may be forgotten sooner than expected if the state unit slipped into groupism and the government faced instability.





Khanduri to prove majority within a week



Addressing his first press conference as Chief Minister, Maj. Gen. Khanduri said in Dehradun on March 9 that he would prove his majority in the state Assembly within one week, ahead of the deadline set by the Governor. The Council of Ministers would be expanded after that. The Chief Minister said his agenda is to restore a people-oriented work culture in the bureaucracy, cut down wasteful expenditure, build up the revenue generating capacity of the people and judicious tapping of natural resources for the benefit of the state.