“Why was he not clearing files for power load approvals of so many companies waiting to set up or expand their businesses in Goa”.
This wasn’t a sudden flash of professional epiphany. Herald’s reportage on the issue actually left him with no choice.
This immediately begs two questions. One, why did it take the Chief Secretary of Goa (irrespective of who has held that post) two years to ask this question, when he was completely aware of how select and very prestigious companies have not got their power connections, for reasons not explained but very clearly hinted to them. Secondly, the Chief Secretary has gone according to protocol and if that’s the case he should have asked the Power secretary. But both he and the Chief Engineer know why these files were blocked. It might have been more prudent for the Chief Minister to summon Power Minister Milind Naik and ask him why, upon his instructions, 23 odd files of power load applications were blocked, an unprecedented record of inefficiency in any government.
It’s futile to demand that Milind Naik should be dropped from the cabinet because he doesn’t deserve to be a minister with this kind of a track record. It is futile because Goa doesn’t really have shining lights among its crop of MLAs who will take over, understand the department and deliver in a span of 12 months. But the least that the Chief Minister can do – and hopefully he is doing so – is to get his team of officials to look at all the bottlenecks that the minister has created and held on to decisions for months, and issue written instructions to clear those, failing which he should override the mister and issue instructions himself.
The Power Minister is clearly playing politics with the Power department. He does not have the right to recall a file on which appointments of much needed professional executive engineers, selected by the state public service commission, have been cleared by the Chief Minister. And readers should know why this was probably done. Simply because the Power Minister had no hand or control over these appointments. These were done through a formal selection process. When Herald got wind of this and managed to procure all necessary documents, the Power Minister cried foul and said he was looking after the interests of those already in the Power department aiming to be promoted to executive engineers. He decided to unleash his anger by dispatching 100 engineers of his department to condemn Herald by holding a formal press conference to attack Herald, which turned out to be a flop.
Mr Milind Naik’s heart surely bleeds for junior engineers who want to be executive engineers. Well the department does have other vacancies for efficient and qualified people, if the people he is batting for are efficient and qualified. The Chief Minister or the State government haven’t closed avenues of their promotion. By recalling a file – and that too verbally – and blocking appointments, thereby causing hardship and loss of employment to selected professionals, the Power Minister has acted out of self interest and not State interest. The department has vacancies that need to be urgently filled and professionals are being blocked because obvious self interests of the Minister are not being served.
We are sure the Chief Minister realises this. All the grand plans of growth, expansion and development will fail if his ministers do not even try and expand their knowledge, vision, understanding from its current levels, where all that matters, in their decision making is “What’s in it for me?” And by the way the Chief Minister isn’t all that removed from this malaise too.
Sadly, Goa is cursed by self interest groups who masquerade as servants of the people.
