SCs ignored for posts of law officers too: Cong leaders

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

As the Punjab Government drew flak from the Opposition for appointing Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s son a law officer on Thursday, Congress SC leaders are up in arms over the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Backward Caste (BC) candidates not being given adequate representation in the appointment of law officers.

It has been pointed out that despite assurance by the Chief Minister to three ministers during one of the Cabinet meetings in June last year, the SC and BC candidates have been ignored in the appointments, whereas the relatives of politicians and judges have been selected.

Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said it was unfortunate that SC candidates were being ignored at every level in the government. He along with two other ministers Aruna Chaudhary and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot had raised the issue of at least 30 per cent reservation for the SC and BC candidates in the appointments with the Chief Minister during one of the Cabinet meetings.

“I had taken up the matter with the Chief Minister. I was assured and even the Advocate General (AG) was told by the Chief Minister to do the needful. The matter relating to the SCs and BCs is not being taken up seriously,” he said.

In the second list of 28 law officers announced on Thursday, there is only one SC candidate. The first list of 121 law officers appointed in July last year had five SC candidates, apart from kin of politicians, judges and former bureaucrats. The first list contained the name of a daughter of Fateh Jang Singh Bajwa, Qadian Congress MLA, and the wife of Chief Minister’s OSD at Amritsar, Sandeep Sandhu.

Senior Congress leader Raj Kumar Verka, who was earlier Chairman of the Vidhan Sabha Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, said though he was not aware of the issue, he would certainly take up the matter with the Chief Minister in Shahkot on Saturday.