PANJIM: Following outbursts by Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza over the transfer of key officials without he being consulted, transfers related to his departments were reverted on Wednesday.
The Deputy CM had been quite upset with the recent secretary level transfers, which were taken without consulting him.
In a recent secretary-level reshuffle, the CM had reallocated portfolios by distributing D’Souza’s portfolios like Urban Development, Town and Country Planning, Revenue, Health, etc to different secretaries while earlier there was one secretary dealing with
all these.
In an order issued by Personnel Department on Wednesday, Sudhir Mahajan, IAS, has been given back the portfolios of Health, Revenue, Law, Judiciary and Legislature and also Urban Development. All the above portfolios are held by D’Souza.
Sources told Herald that Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar went to D’Souza’s chamber at the secretariat with the transfer list Wednesday afternoon.
When contacted for his comments, D’Souza said the issues have been sorted for now. “What I basically wanted is that one secretary should handle all my portfolios. I did not particularly ask for any officer it can be any but it has to be one person as it becomes easier for co-ordination,” D’Souza said.
He added, “Otherwise it becomes difficult if different officers are involved as they are busy with other portfolios or meeting with other ministers or are out of station.”
“I have no problem in reallocation since it’s his (CM’s) prerogative as the in-charge of General Administration and Personnel. But he should have consulted me beforehand. Even Manohar Parrikar always did it”, said D’Souza.
“I had expressed my displeasure to the CM and that’s it. Either he should consult a senior person like me or I am prepared to sit as an MLA,” he said.
Last weekend a holiday trip of six Catholic MLAs, led by D’Souza, to Kochi, Kerala had sparked off speculation of political developments in the State.
The MLAs included BJP’s Michael Lobo, Glenn Ticlo and Carlos Almeida, and Independents, Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado and Velim MLA Benjamin Silva.
