Charanjit Singh Channi, the minister of Technical Education in Punjab has cooked up a storm, after a video of him tossing coins to appoint lecturers has emerged.
The incident took place on Monday when 37 newly recruited mechanical lecturers were called by the minister to give them their posting orders. They were recruited via the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) examination.
Incidentally Minister Channi had to decide between two lecturers hailing from Nabha and Patiala respectively, who both wanted to be appointed as a lecturer at a government polytechnic institute in Patiala. With there being just one post, one of the candidates pitched that his score was better while the other claimed that he had more experience.
Initially the minister asked them to solve the matter internally but when they kept insisting for him to take a decision, rather than digging deeper for more points of comparison, he decided to toss a coin, with the candidates’ approval.
A video of the proceedings was reported by ABP News:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-MxovpFPM]
In the video the minister is seen tossing a coin in his office, while the lecturers whose fate hinged on the outcome of the toss, looked on.
Incredibly, rather than raising concerns over the arbitrary manner of Channi’s appointments, the Congress party has decided to support his move by claiming that his intention was to allot all posts in a transparent manner.
The BJP has decided to jump into this issue and has demanded that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh take action against Minister Channi. As per BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao, Channi is a gambler and not a minister. He also sarcastically added that Amarinder Singh should toss a coin to decide whether the minister should be sacked or forced to resign.
Minister Channi has in the past been in the news for other flamboyant decisions which include him constructing an illegal passage for changing the entrance of his official residence to make it astrologically accurate.
