Has Goa gone into the pause mode because it doesn’t have a fulltime Chief Secretary in place? That is how industry, or some of those who make the wheels of industry turn in Goa, feel about the pace of administration. Speaking to Herald last week, a senior corporate executive mentioning that Goa has but an acting Chief Secretary said, “Nothing has moved,” and went on to add, “We really don’t know what is happening.” Both the statements are so true of this government. There is very little change or parivartan that was promised by the BJP in its election campaign to be seen happening in the State. And, frankly, nobody knows what really is happening in the State and even if anything is.
But can the slow pace of work be blamed on the fact that there is no fullfledged Chief Secretary in the State or is it because there is no political will to make the promised changes?
No doubt that practically in the last 11 months, Goa has been without a full time Chief Secretary for nine months. In September last year, B Vijayan, who was Chief Secretary of Goa, retired. It took three months before another Chief Secretary was appointed and he took charge of the State’s bureaucracy in January this year. In the preceding three month, the State bureaucracy was headed by an acting Chief Secretary.
There was much expected from Keval Kumar Sharma when the announcement was made, not only had he served in the Goa administration early in his career, but he had emotional ties to the State having married a Goan. His stint as Chief Secretary was, however, short. Just two months later he was transferred to Delhi as Chief Secretary after being specially picked up by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and since March of this year Goa has again been under an acting Chief Secretary. A panel of names was given to Goa to choose from, but all three names were rejected by the government. While routine matters do not get stuck due to the absence of a full time Chief Secretary, it definitely affects the larger decision making process.
The wait for a Chief Secretary after Vijayan retired was three months. The wait after Sharma was cherry picked by Kejriwal and transferred to Delhi has already turned six months long. This again brings up the need for a separate administrative cadre for Goa, instead of the joint cadre to which it belongs now. There was a move by the previous government of Manohar Parrikar to seek for a separate administrative cadre for Goa as this would allow the State to have its choice of officers rather than depend on the Centre pulling out officers from the joint Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) pool and giving Goa a selection from whom to choose an officer. It was the fact that Goa does not get the best of officers to choose from that had led the previous government to look at a separate cadre for Goa. The Parrikar government had even sent a formal request to the Centre on this. The Laxmikant Parsekar government decided not to follow up on the request. And now, Goa awaits a Chief Secretary. It is unlikely that the State will get a fullfledged Chief Secretary immediately. Given that once a name is approved by the government the transfer has to be effected and the officer has to then join the service, this could easily take another few months, keeping Goa without a head of administration for almost a year.
But surely, the government can make efforts to get the centre, the Ministry of Home Affairs in this case, to respond faster to the appointment of a Chief Secretary. The Centre has no reason to keep the State waiting for so many months. If it could act on Kejriwal’s demand with alacrity, it surely can show the same speed when it comes to Goa. If it is not displaying this speed, then perhaps it is because the State government is showing no anxiousness in finding a new Chief Secretary. And that perhaps vindicates the senior corporate executive statement that nothing is moving in the State.
