lGovt posts Y A Masurkar as full-time chief officer on Tuesday lMasurkar’s order set aside and Megnath Parab appointed chief officer on Thursday l Y B Tavde visits on Friday for two hours.
TEAM HERALD
VASCO: It has been a tale of three chief officers at the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) within a span of five days and except for a brief two-hour period, not one of them has attended to duties since Monday.
It may be recalled that Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza had assured MMC councillors during his visit to MMC onJune 5, that he would depute a full-time chief officer within a week, as MMC’s part-time chief officer Y B Tavde was also handling additional charge at Margao.
Acting on D’Souza’s assurance, the State government posted Y A Masurkar as full-time chief officer of MMC on Tuesday.
However, Masurkar’s appointment reportedly did not go down well with a group of councillors and pressure was allegedly exerted to have Masurkar replaced with Megnath Parab.
Apparently bowing to their demands, Masurkar’s order was set aside and Parab was appointed as the MMC chief officer on Thursday.
However, Parab failed to take charge as chief officer on Friday.
“The chief officer’s office has largely been vacant since June 12 when Tavde made his presence felt for the election of new chairperson,” informed a source in MMC.
“Tavde would occasionally visit the office only in the evenings to clear pending work of the council,” informed the source.
Efforts to contact MMC Chairperson Bhavana Bhosle on her mobile phone proved futile, as she did not attend to her phone.
Asked to comment on Parab’s delay in taking charge as MMC chief officer, former MMC chairperson Shekar Khadapkar said, “Tavde has to hand over the charge to Parab. At the same time, Parab should also be relieved of his earlier posting and he too has to hand over the charge to his successor. “These formalities may have taken time and Parab will take charge of the MMC office on Monday,” Khadapkar added.
However, sources in the council told Herald that Tavde had made a brief visit for about two hours to the MMC office on Friday and they confirmed that Parab would take charge on Monday.
Meanwhile, the sudden decision to replace Masurkar with Parab has taken many by surprise in the port town.
Former MMC chairperson Fiola Rego said she was surprised over the sudden decision to replace Masurkar with Parab.
“I was happy when I came to know that Masurkar would take charge as chief officer of MMC, as I had learnt that he is very good in handling the administration. However, I was surprised to learn that the order was suddenly changed overnight and instead of Masurkar, former chief officer Megnath Parab will take the charge of MMC once again,” said Rego.
When contacted, Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida said the transfers had been executed by the government and added that he was not aware what had led to the sudden change in the chief officer.
When informed of allegations that councillors were not comfortable with Masurkar’s appointment, Almeida said, “I am not aware of any such thing.”
