Governance in Goa has reached the level of a farce. Two days after a notification came into effect imposing a tax on all commercial vehicles moving in and out of Goa, including Goan vehicles, the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar actually reacted by saying that even he wasn’t aware of this decision. So let’s summarise what this means for our readers.
The Chief Minister is officially in the dark about this since the PWD Chief Engineer has confirmed that this CM wasn’t required to be specifically informed since there was government order to impose this tax. The PWD minister then says that he too wasn’t aware of the decision though his own departments Principal Chief engineer Borker reportedly said that the minister had approved the decision before the notification was issued. The Chief Minister then shot back asking how could the minister not know a notification issued by his own department. The CM has even apologised to the people of Goa through Herald that he was “sorry” that this notification has been issued, and same has been kept in abeyance.
Well, that begs the most obvious question. How does the Chief Minister of Goa not know about a crucial notification issued by his own government, a decision which is mainly a financial one and he (the Chief Minister) is the finance minister.
But the farce, far from ebbing is actually reaching unbelievable proportions. While the Chief Minister says, he’s sorry, the PWD minister is not at all sorry. A day after saying he was in the dark about his department giving a go ahead and issuing the notification imposing the tax on vehicles, he told Herald, that there would be no reversal on the decision to impose the tax and the abeyance would be lifted after consulting stake holders.
This is ample evidence that there is clear breakdown of communication between the chief minister and the PWD minister who are speaking at cross purposes and in clear contradictory voices. They are actually handling this lke children. The CM, embarrassed at this fiasco is now trying to play CM. The PWD minister, who we do not believe was in the dark about the notification, is putting a stamp in his department emphasising that he runs it and not the chief minister. Hanging in the middle are many transporters for whom a final decision is crucial on the running of their businesses and linked to it are several businesses which depend heavily on transportation. As the CM and the PWD minister play this game of one upmanship, decisions worth crores hang in balance.
The collapse of governance has happened on three fronts due to lack of effective control which seems to have been spread thin across departments with no central authority, a contrast from the days of Mr Parrikar as Chief Minister. The chief minister has taken delegation to such a level that even in issues of imposing a tax for getting additional revenues, he is not in the know.
Secondly, The PWD minister found no time to speak to stake holders when a decision to impose this tax was taken by his former boss Mr Parrikar (as Herald has reported exclusively on Wednesday). This was cleared by the former chief minister and the draft of the notification sent to the law department. It stayed there for ten months before the PWD decided to follow this up and impose the tax. The present Chief Minister cannot say he was in the dark because there will be an outward movement of the file sent by the CM’s office vetting the draft of the notification.
Thirdly the PWD department – with or without the knowledge of the Chief Minister – apparently chose to go ahead with the notification without intimating the Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary’s office. We sat “apparently” based on the CM stating that he was completely in the dark about this. Now if the PWD proves that it has indeed informed the CM too, that will be another shameful twist.
Clearly there are no winners here. There is only one loser, which is Goa and it is being run like a banana republic.
