In a major Cabinet decision, Punjab's Bhagwant Mann government on Friday scrapped the Department of Administrative Reforms. The government has issued an official notification announcing the decision. In the official gazette, it said, that Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who held the charge of the ministry so far, will only hold the NRI Affairs portfolio.
In the gazette notification, the government said that Kuldeep Singh was allocated the department but it was nonexistent as on the date. Taking a jibe at the Punjab government, BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said that AAP made a mockery of governance in Punjab. In a post on X, he said, "AAP has made Governance in Punjab a joke! The AAP Minister ran a department for 20 Months that never existed! Imagine that for 20 months, the CM did not even know that a minister was running a " NON EXISTENT DEPARTMENT."
According to a Punjab government Gazette notification released on February 21, Dhaliwal who holds the portfolio of the NRI Affairs department was allocated the charge of the Department of Administrative Reforms, which the Government now says does not exist. "In partial modification of Punjab Government Notification No. 2/1/2022-2Cabinet/2230 dated September 23, 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," the notification read.
The last cabinet reshuffle in the Punjab government was in September 2024 when CM Bhagwant Mann dropped four ministers and inducted five fresh faces into his cabinet, besides reallocation of portfolios.