CHANDIGARH: The Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in Punjab has tweaked rules to appoint sons of two Congress MLAs as Inspector in Punjab Police and Naib Tehsildar in the Revenue Department. The state cabinet on Friday gave the go-ahead for the appointments as special cases. The MLAs whose sons have benefited are Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa and Rakesh Pandey.
In May 2017, the government had appointed Beant Singh’s grandson and MP Ravneet Bittu’s brother Guriqbal Singh as DSP. In his case the government had taken the case to the Cabinet meeting to grant special permission by relaxing maximum age requirement. Arjun Pratap Singh Bajwa will get his appointment letter as Inspector (Group B) in Punjab Police. He is the grandson of former Punjab minister and senior Congress leader Satnam Singh Bajwa, who was killed by terrorists in 1987. Arjun Pratap’s appointment came through a one-time waiver in the relevant rules without making it a precedent.
Arjun Pratap is the son of first-time Congress MLA Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa and the nephew of Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa who is a known critic of CM Amarinder Singh. The cabinet also gave the nod to the appointment of Bhisham Pandey, the grandson of Joginder Pal Pandey who too was gunned down by terrorists in 1987. Bhisham will be Naib Tehsildar (Group-B) in the Revenue Department.
His appointment is also treated as a special case. Bhisham is the son of six-time Congress MLA Rakesh Pandey from Ludhiana (North). The CM said children and grandchildren of such people would continue to be considered by his government for compensatory appointment on a case-to-case basis.