Winning elections and becoming a minister isn’t always easy, but luck and circumstances makes this very simple. Milind Naik rode on this luck and with the blessings of Manohar Parikar become Power Minister. But perhaps somewhere down the line (and we can’t blame this local politician with a new taste of power), he misread his designation and aimed to be a ‘Powerful’ Minister.
This power trip had led to him to believe that he could run the department according to his own diktat – to hell with the Chief Minister or anyone else. But dear Mr Milind Naik, a state government doesn’t work that way. When important positions of Executive Engineers are selected though the State Public Service Commission and approved by the Chief Minister, the Power Minister cannot summon the file, on telephonic orders, and block the appointments, with no official reason on file.
It is also a matter of shame that the Chief Minister, till Herald exposed this, didn’t ask his minister why those selected by the State Public Service Commission a year ago, are not yet in service, since the validity of their appointment will expire on Nov 28. But to the CM’s credit he has now decided to clear this blockade by intervening directly. Herald will be watching.
The Power Minister obviously doesn’t like this. We have learnt, and that the Power Minister can confirm or deny this, that he told his departmental officers that he would not release the file of appointments under any circumstances, as if this was his personal toy. He was further enraged with Herald’s second story on how he has not cleared over 23 applications from important corporates for power supply to augment their businesses. Corporates are frustrated that files of the Power Department just don’t move in the normal course.
If the Power Minister is to be believed that there were factual inaccuracies in any of our stories he could have picked up the phone and spoken to Herald or issued a clarification and/or a denial. Since our facts are solid, we allege on the basis of information we have, that he tried this proxy warfare by directing his engineers to hold a “press conference” to target and condemn Herald. When have 100 engineers of the power department held a press conference to condemn, two stories of a newspaper? Actually many of them didn’t even know why they were asked to be there.
Perhaps Milind Naik needs to acquaint himself with a few facts. a) His brand of kangaroo justice will not work and he can’t bully and sit on files and intimidate newspapers b) He needs to apologise to the Chief Minister and the state for blocking key professionals from joining the Power department c) Herald does not need any apology. By exposing any wrong doing in his functioning (and that of any other minister), Herald will force him and other ministers to answer the people of Goa. They will decide who to condemn and their ‘powerful’ decision, may not be music, at least to the Power Minister’s ears.
