Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday said that expansion of his Cabinet of Ministers will take place on September 26.
Mr. Channi after meeting Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit here, said he intimated the Governor about expansion of his Cabinet and the Governor has assigned the time for September 26. “Tomorrow all the Ministers will take oath of office,” he said on Saturday.
Officially the announcement of new Ministers has not yet taken place. However, sources said the new faces likely to be included are Raj Kumar Verka, Pargat Singh, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurkirat Kotli, Rana Gurjit Singh and Kuljit Nagra. The Ministers from the former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’ Cabinet, who could be left out include Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Gurpreet Singh Kangar.
Manpreet Singh Badal, Brahm Mohindra, Vijay Inder Singla, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Arunu Chaudhary, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Razia Sultana and Bharat Bhushan Ashu are likely to be retained.
Meanwhile, 1988-batch IPS officer, Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota assumed additional charge of Punjab’s Director General of Police.
According to the orders, Mr. Sahota would also continue to hold the charge of Special DGP, Armed Battalion, Punjab.
DGP Dinkar Gupta, a 1987-batch IPS officer, has gone on leave. On September 23, the government had appointed Anirudh Tewari, a 1990 batch IAS officer as new Chief Secretary of the State, replacing Ms. Vini Mahajan. Mr. Dinkar Gupta is husband of Ms. Mahajan.