After the recent tussle between Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu and senior leader Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina over the post of Amritsar Improvement Trust chairman, the city is witnessing a similar drama over the post of municipal commissioner. Two senior Punjab Civil Services officers became virtually rolling stones in the last four days, as they were transferred from one post to another due to the wrangling between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

So strong were the political reverberations within the BJP that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had to intervene to restore the status quo on the post. MC Commissioner D P S Kharbanda, who is courting controversies following a vigilance probe into the multi-crore solid waste management project, was transferred as Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Tarn Taran, on October 12. The additional charge of his post was given to ADC Paramjit Singh.

Kharbanda, a Sidhu man who enjoys the support of Mayor Shawet Malik, however, refused to leave. Political pulls and pushes started and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, whose differences with Sidhu are public now, ordered the transfer of ADC (General) Puneet Bharadwaj to the commissioner’s post. Bharadwaj was asked to immediately join duty.

Kharbanda, who did not join his duty as ADC, Tarn Taran, was transferred as ADC (General), Amritsar. After Bharadwaj joined duty as commissioner, the mayor rushed to Delhi to meet Sidhu in an apparent bid to thwart his posting. With Sidhu taking up the matter with BJP general secretary and in-charge, Punjab affairs, Balbir Punj, the transfer orders were reversed late on Wednesday evening.

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