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New Punjab offices a costly business
CB Singh
Chandigarh
APPOINTMENT OF 21 newly elected legislators as chief parliamentary secretaries appears to be a costly affair for cash-starved Punjab.
A lot of state exchequer is being used for the construction and creation of offices from where they can assist cabinet ministers of their respective departments and ministry.
The classic example for the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation which holds the Punjab Industry and Commerce Minister Anil Joshi’s office at its ground floor.
Located at the third floor of the PSIEC in front of the MD office, the office of the chief parliamentary secretary NK Sharma, who is a builder-cum-developer turned politician, has been under construction for the past one week.
It is worth mentioning that Sharma has a close association with the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Sharma, supervising his construction activities, has reportedly appointed his own architect to refurbish the office. Official sources said the total cost of the office construction was expected to cross Rs 20 lakh .
A year back, PSIEC had invested Rs 4 lakh on the renovations for the additional managing director Dilraj Singh, who was transferred last year. It had no infrastructure facilities for the last eight months in a row.
The PSIEC staff association vice-president Kulwinder Singh and its general secretary Nullu have criticised the wastage of the corporation money for reconstruction of new office for the newly appointed CPS NK Sharma.
It’s a pre-planned conspiracy to dole out the profit of the PSIEC to make it a lossmaking body to pave way for its merger with PSIDC and PFC, they added.
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They further said the Punjab government should compensate it by bearing the expenditure to be incurred on the construction of the office of CPS.
CPS NK Sharma when contacted said construction of the office was being done by PSIEC and his architect was only supervising the design.
A similar situation prevails in other boards and corporations in Punjab where a lot of offices are being constructed.
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