Jumping the gun media reports almost confirm Cabral’s ouster from the cabinet

PANJIM: Speculations about a cabinet reshuffle ran thick and flew high with rumours that PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral would be dropped and Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira would be inducted.

Then local media- obviously not O Heraldo jumped the gun, and almost confirmed that the development would take in 24 hours.

However, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant neither denied nor confirmed the reports and said that when a decision is taken, it will be conveyed to the media.

All this compelled Cabral to speak to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who told him that there is no decision of a cabinet rejig.

When contacted, Cabral told O Heraldo that nobody has told him to resign. “Nobody has told me to resign as Minister. I should know the reasons for stepping down. When time comes, I will see what is to be done,” he said.

The PWD Minister out-rightly condemned a news report appearing in a vernacular press about an alleged job recruitment scam in his department.

“I will not only resign but retire from active politics if any one of the selected candidates says that he had paid me money to get the job. I am a man of principles. I travel without PSO. I know my role. I work hard and do social work,” he said, adding that the ministry was not important to him.

There were rumours in the State for the last few days that the BJP high command has instructed Cabral to resign as Minister so as to accommodate Sequeira, who along with seven rebel Congress MLAs switched over to BJP in September last year.

There is also resentment among the eight defectors for the inordinate delay for their induction in the cabinet. It is learnt that some of them were promised ministerial berths at the time of their joining the BJP. 

In April this year, the Chief Minister had also said that he would effect a reshuffle to induct some of the MLAs, who had switched sides. 

In December 2021, there were similar allegations about a job recruitment scam in the PWD. Some of the MLAs had accused the then PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar of “selling Engineer posts” in PWD and the recruitment scam was to the extent of Rs 70 crore.

Following the allegations, the then government appointed a three-member committee and kept the recruitment process on hold.

Cabral said that the Government Polytechnic had corrected the papers of candidates and the computer-generated marks have been displayed on the PWD website. “There is no chance of the marks being tampered with and now the department selection committee comprising joint secretary and under secretary, and representatives of ST, SC and Freedom Fighters will verify/examine the documents of candidates who will be called for interviews,” he told O Heraldo.

Nuvem MLA Aleixo Sequeira said that he was unaware about the rumours of the cabinet reshuffle and that nobody had informed him about his induction in the cabinet. These are rumours going on for the last one year,” he added.

“I spoke to the CM on Saturday evening. It was not on this (cabinet reshuffle subject). I spoke about the proposed alignment for the new Borim Bridge. I will discuss it further with the chief minister,” he said.

To a question, Sequeira said that there was no commitment about ministerial berths when they joined the BJP. The commitment was only development and it is being fulfilled.