Punjab Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal Ran ‘Non-Existent’ Department For 20 Months; BJP Reacts | X/ Kuldeep Dhaliwal
Chandigarh: After 20 months, the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann released that a department allocated to a minister had never existed. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab on Friday acknowledged that the Department of Administrative Reforms, allotted to Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, was “non-existent”.
The notification further stated that Dhaliwal will now only look after the NRI affairs department. Notably, Dhaliwal grabbed the headlines as Punjab’s NRI Affairs minister after the first lot of illegal immigrants deported by the United States landed in Amritsar on February 5.
“In partial modification of Punjab Government Notification No. 2/1/2022-2Cabinet/2230 dated 23.09.2024, regarding allocation of portfolios amongst the Ministers, the Department of Administrative Reforms earlier allotted to Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Cabinet Minister is not in existence as on date,” read the notification.
Gazette Notification By The Punjab Government:
After the AAP formed government in Punjab in March 2022, Dhaliwal was allotted Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department. However, during a cabinet reshuffle in May 2023, Dhaliwal was relieved from his duties as the agriculture minister and was assigned the NRI affairs along with the Administrative Reforms. he retained the portfolios after the September 2024 cabinet reshuffle.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted the Mann government in Punjab over the gazette notification. “Imagine for 20 months the CM did not even know that a minister was running a NON EXISTENT DEPARTMENT,” BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said in X post.
BJP IT Department In-charge Amit Malviya also slammed the AAP government. Malviya, in his X post, wrote, “You can imagine the crisis in Punjab government if it took nearly 20 months to realise that a department assigned to one of its prominent ministers never actually existed. Arvind Kejriwal is a charlatan who must be banished from public life.”
Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal too took a dig at the state government over the portfolio gaffe. “All this is happening because ministers have no role in governance as the govt is being run in remote control from Delhi,” the SAD MP said.
Dhaliwal won the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election from the Ajnala seat.
