CM Bhagwant Mann can answer, departments have no meaning to me: Punjab Minister Dhaliwal after he was removed from department that didn’t exist

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who is a Cabinet Minister in the AAP government in Punjab, was relieved from the charge of a department that never existed. Dhaliwal was given charge of two departments in the Punjab government – the NRI Affairs Department and the Department of Administrative Reforms. However, it was revealed through a gazette notification from the Punjab government that the Department of Administrative Reforms does not exist.

The Punjab government issued a notification on 21st February 2025 informing that the Department of Administrative Reforms which was allotted to Dhaliwal via a notification dated 23rd September 2024, ‘is not in existence as on date’. “In partial modification of Punjab Government Notification No. 2/1/2022-2Cabinet/2230 dated 23.09.2024, regarding allocation of portfolios among ministers, the Department of Administrative Reforms earlier allotted to Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Cabinet Minister, is not in existence as on date. Therefore, on the advice of the Chief Minister, the Governor of Punjab is pleased to make the amendment w.e.f. 07-02-2025,” the notification read. Now, the minister is left with only one department.

What did Dhaliwal say?

Responding to the notification, Dhaliwal reportedly said that he was not bothered about any departments as he only wanted to serve the people of Punjab. “You must have read that they had wound up the department. As for me, I had returned from the US to serve Punjab and not take up any departments. These departments have no meaning to me. My only aim is to save Punjab and bring it back on track. It is up to the CM to take whatever kind of work he wants to take from me. The department’s existence is not my concern, “the Tribune quoted Dhaliwal as saying.

In an attempt to cover up the blunder, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann said that the only department’s nomenclature has been changed.

The department had no staff

As per reports, the Department of Administrative Reforms did not have any staff. After being given the charge of the department, Dhaliwal kept asking the government to appoint a secretary but no such officer was posted. He was later informed that administrative reforms fell under the Governance Reforms Department. Dhaliwal was given the Administrative Reforms Department after stripping him of the Agriculture and Rural Development departments in 2023.

Opposition attacks the government over non-existent department

Taking a dig at the Punjab government BJP leader Amit Malviya wrote on X, “You can imagine the crisis in Punjab government if it took nearly 20 months to realise that a department assigned to one of its prominent ministers never actually existed. Arvind Kejriwal is a charlatan who must be banished from public life.”

You can imagine the crisis in Punjab government if it took nearly 20 months to realise that a department assigned to one of its prominent ministers never actually existed.

Arvind Kejriwal is a charlatan who must be banished from public life. https://t.co/DbP0XlWbNx

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) February 22, 2025

Reacting to the news, Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Bathinda Harsimrat Kaur said that this is happening because ministers have no role in governance in the AAP government in the state. “Governance AAP-Punjab style. Allocate non-existent departments to ministers who themselves are ignorant of the portfolios they hold. All this is happening because ministers have no role in governance as the government is being run in remote control from Delhi,” she said.