l Commissioner reports back from his leave and then leaves without informing the Mayor
l Mayor threatens legal action if he does not get new commissioner
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The shrill war of attrition between Mayor Surendra Furtado and CCP Commissioner Sanjith Rodrigues has intensified with the commissioner reporting back from his leave and then leaving for conference as a CCP representative without informing the mayor or the corporation, forcing the mayor to threaten legal action if he does not get a new commissioner.
In a note to the Chief Secretary, the Mayor has asked the Government to depute a new Commissioner to the CCP at the earliest “in the best interests of the people of the city of Panjim” otherwise he threatened to resort to ‘legal redressal’.
According to the mayor, Rodrigues was to have supposedly rejoined duty from May 2. “However, the Commissioner has established no contact with this office or submitted his joining report. The only information was a fax sent (using the fax machine of GSIDC) to CCP on May 2, informing that the Commissioner will be resuming his charge with no copy marked to the undersigned.”
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Furtado charged that an official letter signed by the Deputy Commissioner, CCP, had arranged for his transport from the airport and accommodation at Goa Sadan, New Delhi, from May 4 till 6, stating the Commissioner is attending official convention in New Delhi.
“However, as always neither the Corporation, the Standing Committee or this office is aware of any such official business that the Commissioner is meant to be conducting on behalf of this Corporation while at the same time using the office of this Corporation to enter into correspondence with other Government departments,” Furtado said.
The Mayor alleged that various files including those of important payments have been held up as there is no interaction between the Commissioner and the CCP and since Rodrigues submitted his joining report, the officiating Commissioner stopped attending to his duties at the Corporation “after discussing with the undersigned effective 03.05.2014 that he had received instructions from Principal Secretary (Urban Development) that the regular Commissioner has taken charge.”
Furtado pointed out that the officiating Commissioner has stopped functioning while the regular Commissioner goes for continuous leave of absence again without any intimation. Saying that this has occurred many times before Furtado said this form of behavior was absolutely uncalled for and asked for a substitute to be sent immediately.
Questioning the Government’s reluctance to take a stand on this issue, he alleged that a Chief Executive attempting deliberately to sabotage and disrupt the functioning of the civic body makes things very difficult for rendering effective and good governance.
The Mayor had also pointed out, Monday, that the Commissioner was going on leave ranging from several days to weeks without any intimation to his office. “This office therefore is held at ransom with a paralyzed system without the availability of a functioning Commissioner for delivering services of executive nature that are delegated to the Commissioner,” he argued.
