mann-s-jalandhar-office-accessible-across-punjab

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has decided to set up a camp office in Jalandhar. The Chief Minister’s Office is already on the job of ‘house hunting’ for Mann where he will stay along with his family.

 

It will be for the first time that any Punjab Chief Minister has set up an additional office, other than the one in the capital city Chandigarh. The idea behind setting up a camp office in Jalandhar is to provide easy access to people of the Doaba and Majha regions to the Chief Minister. 

 

On the face of it, the idea is brilliant and welcome. Jalandhar, although it falls in Doaba region, is relatively easily accessible from almost every place in Punjab. One can reach Jalandhar from anywhere from the state within two hours. The farthest places like Fazilka and Abohar may take an hour more. 

 

Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal used to have regular ‘Sangat Darshans’ at district headquarters where people would come with their grievances to him. The entire administration including the police would be present. The idea did yield positive results. Mann seems to have decided to do it differently. 

 

The Chief Minister’s decision may have also been prompted by the Jalandhar West by-election, scheduled on July 10 necessitated by the resignation of the Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sheetal Angural, who switched over to the BJP before the General Elections. 

 

It is a “do or die” battle for the Chief Minister. Since this by-election is being held separately from the four remaining segments, it will have more impact. Besides, it is being held in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 General Elections, in which the ruling AAP fared very badly, winning just three of the thirteen seats. From Jalandhar West, the AAP candidate trailed behind the winning candidate by about thirty thousand votes, which is a huge gap to cover.

 

Whatever may be the reasons, the Chief Minister’s move to set up camp office and residence away from Chandigarh to provide easy access to people will need to be followed by actual access. There have been accessibility issues in the past also.

 

Besides, the Chief Minister will need to enforce the accountability of the bureaucracy. No matter how accessible he remains personally, no matter how much the party’s rank and file, including the legislators remain on the ground, as long as the bureaucrats are not sensitive and responsive to public representatives, nothing much is going to change.

 

The newly elected AAP MP from Sri Anandpur Sahib, Malwinder Singh Kang has gone on record that their party (the AAP) was undone by the bureaucrats.

 

He alleged that certain senior bureaucrats were still aligned with the Congress and the Akali Dal and had deliberately damaged the AAP prospects in the General Elections. 

 

Kang is not the first public representative to air such grievances. In the past, several Congress leaders also had similar grievances when the party was in power between 2017 and 2022.

 

The Congress leaders would often grumble that the bureaucrats would not listen to them. There were instances where senior officers at the secretary level would even overrule the ministers. And that was on of the reasons for the Congress’ poor show in 2022 coming down to 18 from 78 seats. This was despite the Congress having a robust party structure and experienced leadership.

 

The AAP government in Punjab does not have any previous experience to deal with the bureaucracy. The bureaucrats who are well entrenched, and well aware of the influence and status of different political leaders do turn indifferent to public demands. The political leadership is often maligned and accused of unreasonable and even, at times, illegal demands, which is rarely true. 

 

Chief Minister Mann has taken the first step. He must follow it up with ensuring bureaucratic accountability. The bureaucracy should be answerable to the political executive, which has not been the case for a long time in Punjab, much before the AAP government took over.

 

It is the political executive, which has to face the questions from the public and give answers. They have to reach out to people for votes and get elected, while the bureaucrats remain permanently placed in the government for decades together. 

 

The AAP government is still left with half of its term, that is a lot of time. It can fix things, enforce accountability and empower its workers and leaders. Until the workers do not feel empowered with the support of the government, no matter how good your policies are, nothing is going to work for you. 

 

And that is the actual spirit of the democratic government. The bureaucrats, and for that matter all officials, are “public servants” and they must serve the people not govern them, which has been the case in Punjab for many years now, much before the AAP took the reins of the government.