PANJIM: As many as 123 senior government officials were granted extensions and reappointed on contract basis post-retirement in the last two and a half years. There are also over 2000 posts lying vacant in various government departments since March 2012, with the government failing to recruit persons for the jobs.
Of the 123 extensions and reappointments, 25 were done during eight months of the Laxmikant Parsekar government, while 98 were during former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s tenure. All extensions were granted form January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015.
As per the information tabled on the floor of the house, in the last 30 months, 70 extensions were granted while 53 re-appointments were made on contract basis. This included former Education Director Anil Powar, Horticulture director Orlando Rodrigues and present Chief Electrical Engineer S Lekshmanan, Higher Educaton director Bhaskar Nayak and secretary to Governor Dr N. Radhakrishnan.
The reply was tabled to a question raised by BJP legislator Vishnu Wagh, who sought to know how many retired government officials were granted extensions or re-appointed during the period.
The government has come under severe criticism for granting extensions to retired staffers, while not promoting deserving people. During the budget session of the assembly in March, Parsekar had clarified that failure to get suitable qualified and deserving people for the posts, forces government to grant extensions or reappoint retired officials.
In another question, Leader of the Opposition Pratapsingh Rane sought details about posts vacant in various departments. As per the reply, over 2000 posts are vacant in 71 government departments including health services, police, education, art and culture, general administration, panchayats, pwd, industries, mines and geology and others.
