New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government is facing backlash after it came to light that one of its ministers was heading a non-existent department for over 20 months. The govt on Friday issued a notification stating that the department of administrative reforms, assigned to cabinet minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, does not exist. This comes nearly two years after Dhaliwal was appointed to head the department.
According to the Punjab Government Gazette Notification released on February 21, 2025, Dhaliwal will now only oversee the NRI affairs department. The notification amends a previous order and clarifies that the department of administrative reforms was never in existence.
“In partial modification of Punjab Government Notification No. 2/1/2022-2Cabinet/2230 dated 23.09.2024, regarding allocation of portfolios amongst the Ministers, the Department of Administrative Reforms earlier allotted to Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Cabinet Minister is not in existence as on date,” the notification read.
Political backlash over government oversight
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the AAP government, questioning how a senior minister was allowed to lead a non-existent department for nearly two years. BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari remarked, “Imagine, for 20 months, the chief minister did not even realise that a minister was running a department that does not exist.”
“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,” said BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya.
The AAP government also come under fire from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal alleged that Punjab’s ministers are unaware of their own portfolios because the government is being “remote-controlled from Delhi”.
“Governance @AAPPunjab 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 govt is being run in remote control from Delhi,” she wrote on X.
A minister without a department
Dhaliwal, one of Punjab’s most senior ministers, initially held the agriculture and farmers welfare portfolio but was relieved of it in May 2023. He then took charge of NRI affairs and administrative reforms, retaining these roles in a September 2024 Cabinet reshuffle.
Despite his appointment, the administrative reforms department never had an official secretary or staff, nor were any meetings held under Dhaliwal’s leadership. The issue came to light after Dhaliwal reportedly sought clarity on his department’s operations and was informed that it was merely a part of the governance reforms department.
