The ouster, and not transfer of Arun Desai, from his position as Director of Transport is one of the final batch of nails being driven into the remnants of the BJP-MGP relationship. The decision, a much delayed one, has to be commended. This is one of Chief Minister Parsekar’s rare decisive and telling moves. Desai and Transport Minister Sudin Dhavlikar were a team in the transport department and functioned through a wide network of “karyakartas” who were given important positions within the PWD system either officially or kept in the periphery with massive powers. And if party insiders are to be believed the two – Dhavlikar and Desai, are headed towards becoming relatives, with their children likely to tie the knot.
This piece of personal information was needed to be put out in the context of the transport department being riveted with corruption charges and inquiries, with both Dhavlikar as minister and Desai as director. In July, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) arrested Assistant Director of Transport Uday Gawas and Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector Vaman Umbrascar of the enforcement wing of the Transport Department while accepting a bribe of Rs 90,000 from a transport contractor at Patto in Panjim. ACB officials then said that the duo were demanding Rs 1.5 lakh from the contractor for him to operate in their jurisdiction though the operator has valid licenses and had made payments of various taxes to the State government.
On September 4, Arun Desai, who as earlier Vigilance Director was grilled by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in connection with a bribery case against peon Dattaram alias Damu Gawde. On August 28 the ACB had arrested Gawade from the Transport department in Panjim while accepting Rs 1 lakh from an Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector (AMVI) to settle service issues he was facing. Meanwhile Gawde during his interrogation had disclosed that Deputy Director Vishram Govekar, was linked to the bribery case. With the needle of suspicion pointing up the hierarchy and beyond, Desai’s role and involvement has definitely come under the ambit of investigation.
Thus we have the Director transferred, Deputy Director grilled by the ACB and the Assistant Director of Transport arrested, firmly establishing the rot in the system.
It is also important to trace the roots of Damu Gawde. He joined as a humble worker in Minister Dhavlikar’s office and then became a peon. He was then sent to the transport director’s office as a junior peon, a position he consolidated, almost by design. Insiders in the department revealed that very little moved without the Gawde touch. Gawde attained the same level of importance or notoriety (depending on which side of the fence you are) as Arun Nayak, another MGP ‘karyakarta’ who became a parallel power centre in the Ponda RTO.
The transport department has been run as an extension of the MGP party office for years, or to put in more bluntly as an extension of the personal office of the Dhavlikar brothers.
What has changed though is the equation between the Dhavlikar’s and a certain Mr Laxmikant Parsekar. The Chief Minister backed by almost everyone in the party has decided not to let their baggage weigh on them. This change can be seen in the following context.
When the Anti-Corruption Bureau investigating alleged corruption in the recruitment of 15 Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspectors (AMVI’s) between October 2010 and March 2011, submitted its report in 2013, during Mr Parrikar’s tenure as Chief Minister, in a complaint against role of the Dhavlikar brothers, Arun Desai and Officer on Special Duty Milind Bhobe, it highlighted irregularities in the recruitment of the AMVI’s. The report however made no mention of the role played by the above named in the scam which involved the fraudulent recruitment of the 15 AMVI’s, eight of whom produced their experience certificates from the same motor garage “Maruti Chari” in Usgao Tisk. Mr Parrikar had silently protected the Dhavlikar’s then.
Times have surely changed. Manohar Parrikar’s protective hand has given way to the hand of Chief Minister Parsekar who is on a mission of finishing his tenure in a blaze of bravado and glory to brush other inadequacies under the sea. But that’s another story, nay a whole book. Whatever his political strategy, any action against rampant corruption needs to be backed, and Herald is doing exactly that.
