Chandigarh/IBNS, Feb. 22 -- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab is facing the Opposition's heat after it was found a cabinet minister ran a department which was non-existent for the last 20 months, media reports said.

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal was relieved of his earlier portfolio Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department in 2023.

Dhaliwal was then given the charge of NRI Affairs portfolio.

Adding to that, he was assigned to the Department of Administrative Reforms, the portfolio he kept with himself after a cabinet reshuffle in September 2024.

But in a gazette notification, the AAP government, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, said the Department of Administrative Reforms was "non-existent".

The BJP, which has just...