CHANDIGARH: With the new Congress Government to be in place now, as Capt Amarinder Singh will be sworn-in on March 16, hectic lobbying is going on in the bureaucratic and police circles for the next Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Principal Secretary to CM besides other plum postings.
Highly placed sources said that civil and police officers are making rounds of Congress leaders and meeting Capt Amarinder Singh and his close confidantes to get plum postings in the new government.
As Capt Amarinder Singh takes oath on March 16, the postings of IAS, IPS and other officers are likely to be done after March 18.
Already the race is on for the next Chief Secretary of Punjab as the names of Himmat Singh a 1980 batch
IAS officer presently sidelined by the SAD-BJP Government for the last ten years is doing the rounds.
He is now Member Secretary Punjab State Women Commission. Singh is due to retire in the next six months and is the seniormost IAS officer in the state.
He was close to Amarinder during his last tenure as CM. Besides Singh, names of NS Kang a 1983 batch IAS officer presently posted as Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DIVYANGJAN) in Union Government, KBS Sidhu a 1984-batch IAS who is Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Punjab and NS Kalsi also of the same batch who is presently Additional Chief Secretary (Development), Punjab are doing the rounds.
For the post of Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister the frontrunners are KAP Sinha and Tejveer Singh. Both are senior IAS officers of Punjab cadre. The1994-batch Tejveer is presently on deputation with the Central government as he is posted as Deputy Director in LBSNAA in Mussorie and his deputation ends on March 31. His name is in the reckoning for the coveted post as he was Deputy Commissioner of Patiala for almost five years when Amarinder was the Chief Minister of the state from 2002 to 2007. Amarinder belongs to Patiala.
Sinha a 1992-batch IAS officer is presently posted Principal Secretary General Administration. Before that he was in the Finance Department and earlier he was on central deputation as he was then posted as private secretary to then Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur. Kaur is wife of Capt Amarinder Singh.
As Tejveer returns so will his wife, a 1995-batch IAS officer Jaspreet Talwar, who was also on deputation in IAS Academy, Mussorie with her husband. She is also likely to get an important posting.
The race for the next state police chief is hot. It is likely that the present Director General of Police, Punjab 1982 batch IPS officer Suresh Arora will continue as of now.
As it is learnt that the chief minister designate Capt Amarinder Singh has told him to continue. The other contenders for the post of Punjab DGP are Sanjeev Gupta also a 1982-batch IPS officer who is presently sidelined as he is posted as adviser prison reforms and Mohd Mustaffa, a 1985-batch IPS officer who is DGP Punjab State Human Rights Commission. Mustaffa’s wife Razia Sultana has won from Malerkotla on a Congress ticket and in all likelihood will be a Cabinet minister in the new Cabinet.