CHANDIGARH: Political appointments will soon gather pace in Punjab even as Lieutenant General Tajinder Singh Shergill (Retd) is set to be appointed as senior adviser in the Chief Minister’s Office while ex-IAS officer and former chief secretary, KR Lakhanpal is set to head the Expenditure Reforms Commission.
Another former IAS officer, Kusumjit Kaur Sidhu, is likely to be appointed the vice-chancellor of Punjabi University.
In Singh’s earlier tenure as Punjab Chief Minister from 2002 to 2007, Shergill was the chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). The latter has also co-authored a book, ‘The Monsoon War’, with Captain Amarinder Singh and was in his core team during these Assembly elections.
Former chief secretary of the state, KR Lakhanpal, is set to head the Expenditure Reforms Commission which was approved in the first Cabinet meeting on Saturday. This commission will examine all government expenditures to ensure prudence and efficiency in spending by various departments and other organisations funded by the government.
Sources said former IAS officer Kusumjit Sidhu might be appointed the vice-chancellor of the Punjabi University in Patiala as the present VC, Dr Jaspal Singh, resigned from the post after the Congress Government came to power.
A 1979-batch IAS officer, Sidhu retired as a Secretary in the Union Government. Prior to that, she has also served as the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab during the last Assembly elections.
She belongs to Captain Amarinder Singh’s ancestral village Mehraj, in Bathinda district