The buzz in the corridors of power-mongering is that the weeklong gap between staking claim and swearing-in is being used for jostling over portfolios. With some of the old veterans returning as BJP MLAs and with two independents and MGP’s Sudin Dhavalikar expected to be sworn in, there is an absolute intense power race for the most coveted portfolios
But are these coveted because there give an opportunity to serve the people of Goa. Are these portfolios much sought after for “personal development”? One expects not.
As the countdown to the swearing-in and the allocation of portfolios starts, one is reminded of the words of former governor of Goa Satyapal Malik who said, “There was corruption in everything the Goa government did.” While this was strongly denied by the government, the Governor’s remarks spread like wildfire. This time the Pramod Sawant government will have the opportunity and the will to have zero tolerance to corruption.
The BJP would like to ensure that departments do not become milch cows
Some of the most coveted departments referred to as “milch cows” are PWD, TCP, Power, Revenue, and Health among others while Home and Finance are politically powerful ones. The image that these departments are lucrative to ministers has to be removed and the Sawant government is expected to go into overdrive and correct this impression.
There is a very big opportunity to make these departments – along with every other portfolio – accessible and beneficial to the common Goan and to the powerful. These departments can play a role in improving rural road connectivity and conditions, ensuring town planning is done in such a way that land use does not spoil our ecology, water resources, environment, and our hillocks and fields, that there is power connectivity to the remotest villages along with a regular supply of water, that the Health department’s priority is to improve rural health care and make the Primary Health Care Centers fully equipped with modern facilities and beds to take pressure off the GMC.
Similarly, every department, be it Environment, Tourism, Water Resources, Irrigation, Agriculture, Fisheries Civil Supplies, Panchayats, Transport, Industries, Excise, Tourism, and even Factories and Broilers etc are meant for the service of the common Goan who is eking out a living, doing a small business and contributing to the State and at the same time earning for his family.
Ministers are expected not to be page boys of the politically powerful but foot soldiers of the common man
The feeling is that many of the milch cow departments have real estate lobbyists, agents, and businessmen waiting outside their offices. This time the BJP with the mandate it has got is expected to make these departments delivery mechanisms for the common ordinary Goan and deliver governance at their doorstep. This has found resonance in professional bodies and entities in the state. The Goa State Industries Association in a letter to the Chief Minister-elect, has stated “we would like to request Dr Pramod Sawant to choose his Ministerial team of persons with integrity, development-oriented and sensitive to the needs of the people of Goa. Persons with a bad record in handling the Ministry earlier should not be entrusted with the same ministry. Ministers should have basic knowledge of the work they are to handle, and ministries should be allocated on merits and not on any other considerations”.
It has further suggested, “Strict action should be initiated on persons involved in corruption or adopting delaying tactics in the movement of work files. This should be applicable to even the Ministers. Announce an anti-corruption helpline as done by Punjab Government so that people can lodge a complaint of corruption on a WhatsApp number which should be monitored by the Chief Minister.”
These suggestions deserve consideration because that is the view of the people at large too and these suggestions have been made with the expectation that the new BJP government will work in that direction.
The right direction is when day-to-day work of departments will be run by professionals and not politicians
From policing to law and order to industries etc, if each department is run by subject experts and professionals who will run the State according to people-oriented policies and the rule of law, there will be zero opportunity for politicians to indulge in anti-people activities. And the BJP government with the mandate it has got can easily do this
At the end of the day, people remember how the government has treated them. If they are treated with respect and dignity and can get their genuine work done without being under pressure to gratify the powers that be, they will always support the same party to govern them. Governance in Goa is less about ideology and political beliefs and more about the delivery of governance. If the BJP simply does that and betters the lives of Goans by doing so, they will rule for further terms.
