11 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries take oath in Punjab

Chandigarh, Apr 16 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today administered the oath of office and secrecy to 11 MLAs as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) at the Punjab Bhawan.

With these appointments, the strength of the CPSs has risen to 14.

The newly-appointed CPSs are Harish Rai Dhanda from Ludhiana West constituency, Nand Lal (Balachaur), Des Raj Dhugga (Garhdiwala), Seetal Singh (Dharmkot), Sher Singh (Jalalabad), Jagdeep Singh Nakai, (Joga), Bikramjit Singh Khalsa (Khalsa) and Avinash Chander (Kartarpur), all of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The BJP MLAs who took oath as CPSs were Arunesh Kumar (Mukerian), Sukhpal Singh Nannu (Ferozpur) and Raj Khurana (Rajpura).

Earlier, the government had appointed Mohinder Kaur Josh and Sarwan Singh, both of the SAD, and Jagdish Raj Sahni of the BJP as CPSs.

Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh conducted the oath taking proceedings.

Prominent among others who were present on the occasion included Punjab BJP chief Avinash Rai Khanna, BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and Cabinet Ministers Manoranjan Kalia, Capt Kanwaljit Singh and Mr Tikshan Sood, besides SAD and BJP party leaders and workers.

Later, justifying the appointment of the CPSs, Mr Badal said youngsters had been given a chance to gain some administrative experience. Representation had been given to all sections of society, he added.

UNI