The Bhagwant Mann ministry is the State Cabinet of Punjab, India headed by the present Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The oath-taking ceremony of Mann was held at Khatkar Kalan village on 16 March 2022. The 10 cabinet ministers took oath on 19 March.
Mann holds the home ministry among other portfolios. Harpal Singh Cheema is the finance minister. Harjot Singh Bains is the Education minister. Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer is the Sports & Youth Services minister.
History
Inauguration
On 10 March, the election results were announced. The Aam Aadmi Party gained a full majority in the sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly by winning 92 seats out of 117 total. The opposition parties are the Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
On 11 March 2022, AAP Punjab convener and MP Bhagwant Mann was elected by the AAP legislative members as their leader in the assembly. Mann took oath as the Chief Minister in the Punjab government in a public ceremony at Khatkar Kalan village on 16 March, when the term of the incumbent Fifteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly expired. 10 cabinet ministers took oath on 19 March at Guru Nanak Dev auditorium of Punjab Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh. Eight ministers who took oath were greenhorn (first term) Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) while two were in their second term.
The cabinet can have at most 18 ministers, but Mann decided to appoint a smaller cabinet. Mann has set targets for every minister to achieve, saying people "can demand that the minister be removed" if the targets are not met.
Shuffling in the cabinet
In May 2022, health minister Vijay Singla was removed from cabinet, after corruption charges were raised against him.
5 MLAs were inducted into the cabinet and their swearing in ceremony took place on 4 July 2022.
On 7 January 2023, cabinet minister Fauja Singh Sarari resigned as cabinet minister upon corruption allegations following an alleged audio clip of him discussing how to extort money from contractors. He responded by denying the allegations and dubbing the clip of him "doctored". He was replaced by Dr. Balbir Singh.
On 31 May 2023, cabinet minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar resigned as cabinet minister on personal grounds.He was replaced with Balkar Singh. Along with him, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian was also given a place in cabinet by allocating him an important portfolio of Agriculture and farmers welfare among others.
Controversies
Assassination of Sidhu Moosewala
Scam by Minister Fauja Singh Sarari
Scam by MLA Mansa and CM's admittance
Sex Scandal of Minister Kataruchak
Land Grabbing Case against MLA Jagraon
Misuse of Government resources & machinery for party activities
Major decisions
Ending VIP culture
Even before taking the oath, CM-designate Mann took steps to end VIP culture by meeting with the Director General of Police (DGP). Next day, the DGP in charge of security gave orders to withdraw personnel from 122 former MLAs and ministers. A total of 384 policemen previously on security details for those politicians were transferred back to their parent unit. Mann had stated that the police force was needed for security of the people and not VIPs. As ordered, 21 security personnel, the largest detail in the list, were withdrawn from the service of former transport minister and incumbent MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said Mann "removed the security of old ministers and gave security to the public". However, the same security was reallotted to AAP leaders, with Bhagwant Mann having the highest number of security personnel with him and a handful with his wife, mother and sister as well.
In May 2022, police personnel involved in the security of 424 VIPs were recalled. MLAs, jathedars of two Takhts, heads of various deras and police officers were part of the 424 VIPs In hopes of cashing in on this decision with the public of not just Punjab, but other states where AAP wanted to expand their footprint. This led to Baltej Pannu publishing a confidential list to media houses which included the name of famous Punjabi Singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was assassinated due to leaking of this list by gangsters who also agreed that they could only carry out the assassination because of the governments decision to withdraw security given to Moosewala.
Employment
On 19 March 2022, during the first Cabinet meeting, Mann announced his decision to fill 25,000 job openings in various departments of Punjab government. 10,000 of those vacancies were in the Punjab Police.